On March 26, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a qui tam False Claims Act (FCA) settlement of $4.6 million between defense contractor MORSECORP Inc. (MORSE) and the United States. In the settlement, MORSE, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, resolved whistleblower allegations that they failed to comply with cybersecurity contracts with the Army and Air Force.
The allegations centered around MORSE knowing it had not complied with cybersecurity requirements for the Army or Air Force and submitting false or fraudulent claims for payment on contracts. Within the settlement, from January 2018 to September 2023, MORSE “admitted, acknowledged and accepted responsibility for” using an unverified third-party company to host MORSE emails, failing to implement required cybersecurity controls, lacking a written plan for its information systems, and fraudulently reporting their security control score as higher than it was in reality.
The settlement stems from a qui tam lawsuit filed on January 19, 2023, by a whistleblower, or “relator” under the FCA, against MORSE on behalf of the federal government. Under the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions, private parties may file lawsuits on behalf of the federal government and share in any financial recovery. The most common qui tam cases concern alleged healthcare and defense contracting fraud like this case. In successful suits, whistleblowers who file a qui tam action may receive between 15% and 30% of the total...
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