Representing a whistleblower, Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP partner Thomas H. Bienert Jr. and the rest of the BKLW team filed a lawsuit on behalf of the federal government claiming that three computer part suppliers wrongly sold various federal agencies disguised Chinese products, including computer mice. Tom and the BKLW team secured settlements from the three defendants totaling approximately $2 million.   

In order to support domestic manufacturing and business with favored trading partners, Congress enacted the Trade Agreements Act (“TAA”).  The TAA requires that government suppliers ensure that products sold to federal government agencies are from one of the TAA’s designated countries.  China is not on the approved list. 

The lawsuit alleged that the named defendants knew that Chinese-made parts were cheaper, so they decided that they would buy Chinese-made products, hide the fact that they were from China when they were shipping the products to the government, and make more money.  They did this by falsely claiming that products the government purchased came from trading partners and by removing stickers and boxes that said “Made in China.” 

The disguised Chinese products the three defendants sold were shipped to various federal agencies, including the Departments of the Navy and Army.  Following their failures to dismiss the action and initial discovery, the defendants collectively agreed to pay approximately $2 million to settle the matter against them, with $1.2 million being paid to BKLW's client.  

 “Disguising the origin of products supplied to our federal government to sell it cheaper, “Made-in-China” computer products not only runs afoul of Congress’ goal to support manufacturing in the US and with our trading partners but also exposes the federal government to security risks,” says Tom Bienert, who worked on the matter with co-counsel Phil Hilder and Paul Creech of Hilder & Associates in Texas.  Tom added, “we hope that this lawsuit, and the resulting recovery, encourages employees who witness fraud on the government to report it.  Our government gives billions of dollars each year to a myriad of companies and brave whistleblowers serve a vital role in recovering improper, false, and fraudulent charges.”

Tom and others on the BKLW team have expertise and experience in handling whistleblower matters, having secured a record $280 million settlement and $78 million relator share for its False Claims Act client Beverly Brown.

Read More:

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