Chantilly, Virginia, contractor SOC LLC. agreed to settle a False Claims Act whistleblower go well with relating to their bomb canines for $259,353.60, the Justice Department introduced Thursday.

SOC was contracted to produce bomb-sniffing canines and their handlers to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Under the phrases of the deal, SOC handlers have been supposed to provide the canines 4 hours of coaching in explosives detection per week.

Whistleblower Jamie Morris labored for SOC on the Baghdad embassy as a kennel grasp from June 2012 to April 2017, and labored for SOC there once more as a handler from September 2018 to February 2020, in response to his LinkedIn web page.

On March 17, 2021, Mr. Morris filed a whistleblower go well with alleging that SOC handlers and trainers falsely reported that weekly coaching had been carried out as contractually required, even throughout weeks when no coaching or lower than 4 hours of coaching was carried out.

The civil claims settled by the settlement are solely allegations, and no civil authorized legal responsibility has been assessed to the corporate, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Day & Zimmermann.

The Justice Department didn't publicize how a lot cash Mr. Morris will probably be due as a whistleblower on this case.

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