On January 24, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington announced that it had filed a Complaint against Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, LLC (HMIS), alleging fraudulent labor overcharging at the Department of Energy (DOE) Hanford Nuclear Site.
The False Claim Act (FCA) allegations stem from a qui tam suit filed by Bradley Keever, a sprinkler fitter in the fire protection group at HMIS. The FCA’s qui tam provisions allow whistleblowers to file the lawsuits on behalf of the government. The government then has the option to intervene and take over the suit, as they did in this case. If the suit is successful, qui tam whistleblowers are entitled to 15-30% of the government’s recovery.
The Hanford Nuclear Site produced plutonium for nuclear weapons starting in the 1940s. In recent decades, the Hanford Site has become the focus of the nation’s largest environmental cleanup, including remediation and treatment of large quantities of radioactive and hazardous waste.
According to the government’s allegations, “between January 2021 and October 2023, HMIS engaged in a systemic and fraudulent overcharging of DOE for fire protection work at Hanford. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that HMIS fire protection personnel regularly experienced extensive and unreasonable idle time on a daily or near-daily basis, due to HMIS’ failure to schedule and carry out work for them to perform. The Complaint further alleges that, during this extensive idle time, HMIS...
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