U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo has approved a request to voluntarily dismiss a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit filed against a western New York electronics firm.
In October 2022, plaintiff Nathan Paul filed a claim against Buffalo-based PCB Piezotronics Inc. “to recover treble damages and civil penalties on behalf of the United States of America in connection with a scheme by PCB designed to circumvent contractual obligations.”
The complaint was filed under a provision of the FCA allowing whistleblowers to report fraud on behalf of the government and receive a share of the recovered funds.
PCB makes parts for the aeronautics industry which are often sold through federal contractors to the U.S. military under contracts that include strict compliance requirements.
When Paul started working for PCB in March 2017 as an internal auditor, many of the company’s government contracts were suspended because PCB was not in compliance due to an inadequate counterfeit parts detection program, according to the complaint.
Although the company managed to become compliant, Paul claimed there were still insufficient protections for detecting counterfeit parts.
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