Lockheed settles fraud claim for $2M

Lockheed Martin Corp. has paid $2 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that claimed the company was part of a scheme to funnel information on a pending contract to the team bidding on the contract.

Lockheed was a subcontractor to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) on a support services contract for the National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. The contract was awarded by the General Services Administration.

According to a Justice Department announcement, two government employees allegedly conspired with Lockheed, SAIC and Applied Enterprise Solutions to share insider information on the contract so that SAIC’s team would win the contract. The SAIC team allegedly received information that was not available to other bidders.

SAIC was paid $115 million under the contract with Lockheed’s portion being $2 million.

A Justice Department spokesman said that the settlement only involves Lockheed and that the suit continues against the other contractors and the two government employees.

Comments from the companies were not available.

The False Claims Act lawsuit was by David Magee, a former employee of the Naval Oceanographic Major Shared Resource Center, which supports the National Center for Critical information Processing and Storage.

Magee’s portion of the settlement is $560,000, according to the Justice Department statement.

Lockheed Martin is ranked No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2010 Top 100 list of the largest government contractors.