http://www.secinfo.com/d2rF3.11e.d.htm

THE L.S. STARRETT COMPANY

121 Crescent Street

Athol, Massachusetts 01331


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Company notes that the Government itself, notwithstanding two
years of investigation, only intervened in this action for the purposes
of settlement. In addition, the United States Attorney for the District
of Massachusetts in early August informed the Company in writing that
based on the facts known to the Office of the United States Attorney,
the United States Attorney's Office does not intend to seek criminal
charges against the Company or its CMM Division in connection with
allegations arising out of, or relating to, the manufacture, sale or
service of CMMs.

So where does it show that Starrett committed a crime?


Tony wrote:
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.