The NJ-based Louis Berger Group agreed to pay $69.3 million in criminal and civil penalties for knowingly overcharging the U.S. government for its work in constructing roads, power plants and schools across Afghanistan.  The charges were brought by whistleblower Harold Salomon, a former employee, who plans to donate part of his 15-20 percent share in the award to a nonprofit he founded that provides healthcare and other services in his native Haiti.

The Louis Berger Group agreed to pay $46.5 million in settlement: $18.7 million in criminal fines and $4.1 million to settle other contractual disputes. They also agreed to a “deferred prosecution,” which means the government’s case will be dropped if the company complies with the terms of the agreement.

The settlement is one of several recent cases that have involved major U.S. contractors in the Afghani and Iraqi war zones, including Xe Services LLC, formerly known as Blackwater, and KBR, formerly a Halliburton subsidiary.

Read the entire article, “$69.3 million Afghan-contracting fine may be a record.”