Qui Tam lawsuit pays off – big

This whistleblower, or Qui Tam, lawsuit paid off big for Robert Ferro. According to news reports, Ferro worked for TRW (not the credit reporting company) in the aerospace industry in the 1990’s. He discovered problems with satellites that were being sold to the U.S. government and wrote a report about it. However, TRW – now owned by the Northrop Grumman Corporation – pressured him not to publish the report. A few years later, satellites sold to the government started failing and falling out of orbit. The company fixed the satellites, but charged the government a lot of money to do so. The fixes also delayed various launch delays over the course of several years.

Although TRW continually told the government that it had no prior knowledge that the satellites would fail, Ferro filed a Qui Tam lawsuit against the company alleging that TRW did know and that the company was taking the government for a ride. The case recently settled for $325 million – a record for a military procurement case. Ferro received 15% of that amount – a hefty $48.75 million.

What is a whistleblower lawsuit?

A whistleblower, or Qui Tam, lawsuit exposes fraud against the government, curtails unfair business practices, punishes those who have broken the law and, some say, even protects the country’s national interests as taxpayers in every bracket are affected.

However, filing a whistleblower lawsuit is a bit more difficult than filing other types of lawsuits. For example, whistleblower attorneys say that it’s very important to be the first person to file the suit or you risk losing your action to someone else. In addition, once that action is filed, it should be kept confidential. Even though retaliation laws protect employees, employers often take adverse employment actions against them – creating another lawsuit and unnecessary hassle. That being said, lawsuits that recoup monies for the government pay off big to the person who has the courage to expose the fraud. To see examples of other awards, please click here.