U.S. sues Lockheed, others for alleged kickbacks on nuclear site cleanup

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has sued Lockheed Martin Corp, Lockheed Martin Services Inc, and Mission Support Alliance LLC, as well as a Lockheed executive for alleged false claims and kickbacks on a multibillion-dollar contract to clean up a nuclear site, the Justice Department said on Friday.

The complaint alleges Lockheed paid more than $1 million to Mission Support Alliance executives in order to win a $232 million subcontract for providing management and technology support at the Hanford, Washington site from 2010 through the middle of 2016 at inflated rates. It also says the defendants lied about the amount of profit included in Lockheed’s billing rates. A Lockheed Martin spokeswoman denied the allegations, saying the company “rejects the suggestion that the corporation or its executives engaged in any wrongdoing. Lockheed Martin will defend this matter vigorously.”

At the time, MSA was owned by Lockheed Martin Integrated Technology LLC, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., and Centerra Group. It awarded the subcontract to Lockheed’s technology group without competition, according to the Justice Department. The large 586-square mile Hanford nuclear site in southern Washington, established during World War Two to produce plutonium, is considered the biggest environmental cleanup in U.S. history. It is administered by the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Washington.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lockheed/u-s-sues-lockheed-others-for-alleged-kickbacks-on-nuclear-site-cleanup-idUSKCN1PX2EL?il=0

U.S. court throws out BlackRock fund fees lawsuit

A U.S. federal court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit against BlackRock Inc that had accused the world’s largest fund manager of charging too much in investment advisory fees, according to a preliminary order. Investors in the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund and the BlackRock Equity Dividend Fund had filed suit in 2014 alleging the fund manager charged fees substantially in excess of those charged by other similar funds. Judge Freda Wolfson of U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, ordered that the full ruling be sealed for 30 days until the parties could make a submission to redact portions of the order. In the preliminary ruling the judge “ordered that Plaintiffs’ claims are dismissed in their entirety.” BlackRock declined to comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackrock-lawsuit/u-s-court-throws-out-blackrock-fund-fees-lawsuit-idUSKCN1PY02H?il=0