(CN) — A whistleblower accusing defense contractors of subverting the U.S. government’s procurement process asked the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday to revive his case and remove federal prosecutors from it.

An attorney for Roger C. Day Jr. argued the federal government failed to investigate his client’s claims of procurement fraud before dismissing his case against the nation’s five largest defense contractors.

Federal prosecutors say they followed the proper procedures and determined the claims were unfounded.

The three-judge panel appeared skeptical Day could bar the government’s intervention in a Federal Claims Act case.

Day, who is himself serving federal time for orchestrating a fraudulent procurement scheme, claims the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency and the contractors have for years misused an online bidding system to sell and acquire sole-source replacement parts for military vehicles.

The government is not supposed to use the bidding system for sole-source parts, Day says. Instead, the government and contractors are supposed to follow different procurement procedures, which cap the profit margins for parts, among other requirements.

“This has been taking place for over two decades and has unlawfully come at the expense of the American taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars,” Day says in his appellate brief.

Day says he learned about the fraud while he himself was cheating the government through a parts substitution scheme. Day used shell companies...

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