A case that will test whether the federal False Claims Act applies to the conduct of contractors working in Iraq is scheduled to start on February 14.
The suit, the result of a whistle-blower complaint, alleges that Custer Battles LLC overcharged the government by inflating billings. The company was contracted to provide security at the Baghdad airport and to help guard and distribute new currency in Iraq.
A judge had ruled last summer that the whistle-blowers suit could not reach all the money paid by the Coalition Provisional Authority to Custer Battles, but must exclude the portion that came from Iraqi oil sales and international donations.
The Justice Department declined to intervene in the suit.
For more details, see the February 13, 2006 edition of the Washington Post.