LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - A Lansing-based research and development firm has paid $500,000 to resolve allegations the company violated the federal False Claims Act to obtain contracts from the United States Army.
Metna Co. was accused of concealing its use of underpaid foreign graduate students to obtain Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts from the Army. United States Attorney Andrew Birge alleged the students were ineligible to work at Metna under their visa restrictions.
The SBIR program encourages US businesses to engage in federally-sponsored research and development that could potentially be commercialized. The purpose, according to Birge, is to stimulate high-tech innovation that meets the government’s needs while promoting entrepreneurs.
The Army’s SBIR proposal required applicants to declare any foreign nationals working on the project. Those disclosures are part of the Army’s vetting process, and would have triggered a review of the foreign national’s visa work authorizations, compliance with visa work restrictions and any associated risks with providing access to new technology funded by the US government.
The government alleged Metna falsely certified it was not using foreign nationals to work on SBIR proposals when in reality much of the work was being done by foreign graduate students. False information was also provided to MSU by Metna, according to the government, including the number of hours the students would work at Metna during the...
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