Shipping company settles with DoJ on fraud allegations

[Turbineguy]

APL Ltd. to Pay U.S. $26.3 Million to Resolve Fraud Allegations for Inflated Shipping Costs to Military in Iraq and Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – APL Limited has agreed to pay the government $26.3 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the United States in connection with contracts to transport cargo in shipping containers to support U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Justice Department announced today. The government alleges that APL, a wholly-owned American subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines Limited, knowingly overcharged and double-billed the Department of Defense to transport thousands of containers from ports to inland delivery destinations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The government alleges that APL inflated its invoices in several ways. For example, APL billed in excess of the rate it paid to plug refrigerated containers holding perishable cargo into a source of electricity at a port in Karachi, Pakistan; billed in excess of the contractual rate to maintain the operation of refrigerated containers at a port in Karachi and at U.S. military bases in Afghanistan; and billed for various non-reimbursable services performed by APL’s subcontractor at a Kuwaiti port.

"Today’s settlement demonstrates our commitment to ensure that contractors doing business with the military in Iraq and Afghanistan perform their contracts ethically, and that taxpayer funds are not misused," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Michael F. Hertz of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.



http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/February/09-civ-120.html

[Uben]

1. Do they still get government contracts?

They should never be considered again. They lost that right when they got greedy and tried to screw the gov out of money.

[Turbineguy]

3. I suspect they were doing

what they saw others doing and getting away with. But not everybody can play.

For many years APL was a progressive, pro-union, management intensive company with a Democratic Party tradition. I worked there during the 80's and early 90's.

[Mr. Sparkle]

2. where is the jail time? they just swindled 26 million out of the government. Thats pathetic.

As always, it seems there is one rule for the rich and another for the poor.