Chevron will pay $45.5 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act. The government claims the company knowingly underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced on federal and Indian lands.

The settlement resolves a charge that Chevron, Texaco and Unocal under-reported gas production between March 1998 and November 2008 in order to reduce their royalty payments.

Part of the $45.5 million will be distributed to state, federal and American Indian accounts, while $12.3 million will go to the heirs of the deceased whistleblower, Texarkana resident Harrold Wright. Wright originally filed the suit under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.

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