Date: April 12, 2022
Bloomberg Law and other media reported on the recent settlement of TELG's client, Julie Reed. Ms. Reed will receive almost the maximum share allowed in qui tam cases as a reward for her work on behalf of the U.S. government. She alleged her former employer, KeyPoint, was misrepresenting high-level security clearance investigations.
Quoteworthy:
"[Ms. Reed] held KeyPoint accountable for delivering proper value to taxpayers, and she knew that the impact of substandard investigations wasn’t just financial — she was standing up for national security."
Janel Quinn
[EXCERPT]
KeyPoint, Whistleblower Settle SecurityClearance Fraud Suit
KeyPoint Government Solutions Inc. and a whistleblower settled a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging improper high-level security clearance investigations under an Office of Personnel Management contract, a district court said.
Judge Christine M. Arguello of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado dismissed the suit in a Monday order.
>> View full story on Bloomberg Law
[ADDITIONAL COVERAGE]
Long-running False Claims Act lawsuit against Peraton subsidiary dismissed following settlement
From FedScoop (April 12, 2022)
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a long-running lawsuit against a Peraton subsidiary over the provision of background investigation services to the Office of Personnel Management.
It ends an eight-year dispute following which KeyPoint Government Solutions agreed to settle with the U.S. government for an undisclosed sum. According to attorneys for the plaintiff, 29% of the settlement figure will be paid to whistleblower Julie Reed who initially a qui tam lawsuit against the company in 2014. KeyPoint has also agreed to pay an additional sum towards Reed’s legal fees.
[….]
“Ms. Reed’s position allowed her to see investigators falsely reporting applicants’ backgrounds as ‘clean’ and omitting information showing otherwise, completing fewer than the required number of interviews, and generally cutting corners,” Court of Appeal judges Mary Beck Briscoe, Stephanie K. Seymour and Jerome Holmes wrote in their 2019 opinion.
“Ms. Reed also believed that she witnessed rampant violations of the TTP and a scheme by KeyPoint management to hide the violations by submitting knowingly false corrective action reports to OPM,” they added in the opinion.
>> View full story on JD Supra
Whistleblower in Security Clearance Fraud Case Receives Reward from Federal Government
From ClearanceJobs (April 12, 2022)
It’s not always easy to say something when you see something. But when you work in national security, it’s important to make sure that rules are followed as intended. When one former defense contractor thought her employer was lying about the completeness of its high-level security clearance background investigations, she reported it.
In her complaint, whistleblower Julie Reed accused federal contractor, KeyPoint Government Solutions, of misrepresenting its highest-level security clearance investigations, which she believes failed to meet strenuous government requirements. She described her growing concern, which she reported internally, that dozens of KeyPoint investigators were failing to report negative investigatory information — and that KeyPoint managers weren’t conducting reviews that would have caught such failures.
>> View full story on ClearanceJobs
Longtime Whistleblower Suit Against Colorado Company Settles
From Law Week Colorado (April 20, 2022)
KeyPoint Government Solutions settled an eight-year-old whistleblower action brought by a Colorado resident and former employee. The False Claims Act qui tam lawsuit was dismissed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on April 11 after KeyPoint, the U.S. government and Julie Reed, the plaintiff and whistleblower, reached an undisclosed settlement.
[….]
The agreement closes out a lengthy case that stemmed from fraud claims. Janel Quinn, principal at The Employment Law Group, P.C., represented Reed and said this was one of the longest qui tam cases she’s worked on. In part, Quinn said, because Reed’s suit was dismissed then reinstated by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
[….]
According to Quinn, Reed brought the lawsuit from a place of passion. “She was steeped in this industry, she was trained in this industry, she had dedicated her life to this industry, her career to this industry,” said Quinn. “Many of my whistleblower clients are passionate, but Julie [Reed] was dedicated to this and to raising this issue and righting this wrong from the outset and she really brought that passion to this case.”
Qui tam cases like Reed’s are a way for taxpayers to hold industries accountable, according to Quinn. “They do allow private parties to provide that check, that counterbalance, that question ‘Hey, is something wrong here? I think that we need to look into this,’” Quinn said. “I think it’s really commendable when people do that and come forward and raise their hand. Because it’s not an easy road for them, it’s a long road, it can be a frustrating road, it can often lead to retaliation in the workplace, potentially alienation from coworkers and colleagues and friends. But the work is important and I think the work that Julie [Reed] did here was really important.”
