Two firms contracting with the Pentagon’s massive Defense Transportation Coordination Initiative agreed to pay the government $13 million to settle allegations of overbilling exposed by two whistleblowers, the Justice Department and private attorneys announced Tuesday.

The California-based companies Menlo Worldwide Services and Estes Forwarding Worldwide agreed to resolve a lawsuit brought in 2013 under the False Claims Act, which allows private citizens bringing forward material information to collect a reward. They were said to have billed the Pentagon the cost of moving freight by air when it was actually shipped by ground, charges that the companies did not admit to.

The two firms were also alleged to have knowingly submitted inflated charges for air fuel instead of ground fuel, and charges for oversized freight when the freight did not qualify as oversized.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2016/05/whistleblowers-praised-exposing-alleged-pentagon-contractor-fraud/128033

See the Justice Department’s announcement about this settlement at: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/menlo-worldwide-services-inc-and-its-subcontractor-estes-pay-us-13-million-resolve