“I think he just got sucked into a bad place by the wrong people and wasn’t even aware of it until he was in way over his head.”

Saturday, 04 February 2017 00:00 Nick Sanders
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Disgruntled employees and allegations of violations of the False Claims Act. We’ve written about it before. More than once.

This one involved Monaco Enterprises, a Spokane-based government contractor who was accused by four former employees of—

… overcharging for airfare and preparing false invoices to give to auditors. The [suit] also said [the company claimed that it] manufactured video monitors when in reality it bought video monitors off the shelf, put a Monaco sticker on them and increased the price by at least 35 percent …

The COO of the company was the CEO’s son-in-law. One of the attorneys for the whistleblowers pointed to the COO, rather than to the CEO. You know that stereotype about the son-in-law? We’re just saying …. In any case, the title quote comes from that attorney, in discussing the role of the CEO in the alleged wrongdoing.

One of the whistleblowers was fired from his job, allegedly in response to concerns raised about overbilling. That would be called “retaliation” and that’s never a good thing.

The company denied any wrongdoing. It settled the two qui tam suits (filed by the four whistleblowers) for $5 million, and it continues to perform work for the Federal government.

News story here.