Orlando, Florida - United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces today that the United States has formally filed a lawsuit against URS Federal Services, Inc. and its subcontractor Yang Enterprises, Inc. This lawsuit is brought pursuant to the False Claims Act.
In its complaint, the government describes a six-year scheme in which URS and Yang – recipients of over a billion dollars in federal government contracts – systematically defrauded the government. The complaint alleges that URS and Yang, who were responsible for overseeing a General Services Administration (GSA) fleet of approximately 400 vehicles for NASA at Kennedy Space Center, submitted more than a thousand claims for undocumented and unreasonable early replacement of car tires.
The complaint alleges that, between June 2009 and April 2015, URS and Yang submitted $387,000 in false claims to the federal government for payment. During this time period, URS and Yang billed NASA for an unprecedented number of tire replacements, excluding ones for blowouts or catastrophic damage. For example, the government alleges that URS ordered six tire replacements for one vehicle during a 27-month period. Some of these tires had fewer than 5,000 miles of use on them. In some cases, installed tires on government vehicles appeared to have been removed and replaced by inferior tires by the time the vehicle was re-serviced. The government alleges that roughly half of the vehicle fleet for which URS and Yang were responsible had vehicles with tires that did not last 60% of their expected tire life.
“We expect government contractors to act with integrity when they fulfill their contractual obligations to the government,” stated U.S. Attorney Bentley. “Overbilling for services that are not documented or not reasonable hurts the taxpayer.”
This case is being investigated by the General Services Administration - Office of Inspector General, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Office of Inspector General, and Assistant United States Attorney Jason Mehta.
The lawsuit contains allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
