FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CIV

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1998	(202) 616-2765

	TDD (202) 514-1888







CLAIMS ALLEGING FRAUD IN ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING 

SETTLED FOR $320,100, UNDER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SETTLEMENT




	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An environmental testing firm and its
former parent corporation today agreed to pay the federal
government $320,100 for allegedly failing to properly test the
level of hazardous substances in soil and water samples as
required under contracts with the Army Corps of Engineers, the
Justice Department announced.

	Assistant Attorney General Frank Hunger of the Civil
Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Yamaguchi of San Francisco,
said the settlement resolves charges against National
Environmental Testing Inc. (NET) and its wholly-owned subsidiary,
NET Midwest Inc., both of Bartlett, Illinois, and Ocean Group,
plc, a British public-liability corporation and the former sole
shareholder of NET.  Ocean Group sold NET in 1996 to a group
comprised of NET's senior managers.  

	The charges originally were brought in 1996, in U.S.
District Court in San Francisco, by Thomas F. Cullen Jr., a
former division manager of NET Midwest's laboratory at Santa
Rosa, California, under the qui tam provisions of the False
Claims Act.

	The complaint alleged that employees of NET Midwest's Santa
Rosa laboratory failed to follow mandatory analytical procedures
in testing for the presence and concentration of hazardous
substances in samples they received in connection with
environmental investigations and remedial actions at federal
facilities.  

	According to the complaint, the Santa Rosa laboratory, from
1989 through 1995, was the quality control facility used by the
Corps as a standard to measure the effectiveness of the clean-up
at hazardous waste sites for such solvents as benzene and
toluene.  The complaint accused the laboratory's employees of
failing to measure the contaminants by a scientific method;
rather, they visually estimated the amount of the contaminants.

	The Environmental Protection Agency, because of the
allegations, suspended the laboratory from federal contracting in
March 1996.  EPA ended the suspension after EPA and NET
negotiated a compliance agreement in July 1996.  

	Under the settlement, Cullen will receive $62,700 for
bringing the matter to the attention of the government.  

	Under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, a
private party can file an action on behalf of the United Sates
and receive a portion of the settlement if the government takes
over the case and prosecutes it successfully.  

	The case was investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation
Command; the Air Force Office of Special Investigations; the
Naval Criminal Investigative Service; and the EPA's Office of
Inspector General.  The Civil Division and the United States
Attorney's office negotiated the settlement.  

###

98-03