How is it a bad assumption? The lawsuit against Starrett resulted from a
claim under the False Claims act. Apparently Starrett was a federal
contractor, or subcontractor.

The False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., also called the "Lincoln
Law") is an American federal law which allows people, whether affiliated
with the government or not, to file actions against federal contractors
claiming fraud against the government. The act of filing such actions is
informally called "whistleblowing". Persons filing under the Act stand to
receive a portion (usually about 15-25 percent) of any recovered damages.

The Act provides a legal tool to counteract fraudulent billings turned in to
the Federal Government. Claims under the law have been filed by persons with
insider knowledge of false claims which have typically involved health care,
military, or other government spending programs.



And this article gives further details:



http://www.telegram.com/static/starr...v3whistle.html











"John Martin" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Sep 17, 8:17 pm, "Tony" wrote:
That is our government at work. The government lost, Starrett lost.
The only ones who came out of it happy were - can't you guess? - the
lawyers. Wonderful, no?

That's the risk any company takes, foreign or domestic, when it bids on
US
Government contracts (and I'm assuming the coordinate MM was for a
government contract.) The contract language for government bids is
typically
very disadvantageous for the vendor (unless your Halliburton.) Sell at
your
own risk when dealing with G'ment bids, otherwise keep your sales in the
private sector.

Bad assumption.