Chief Financial Officer of Mission Support Alliance Agrees to Pay $124,440 for Allegedly Accepting Kickbacks from Lockheed Martin

Spokane – Joseph H. Harrington, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced that Richard A. Olsen, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Department of Energy (DOE) prime contractor Mission Support Alliance LLC (MSA), has agreed to pay $124,440 to resolve allegations that he violated the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Act when he took at least $40,000 in illegal kickbacks paid to him by Lockheed Martin Corporation (Lockheed Martin).

In August 2009, MSA began performance under a multi-billion dollar services contract with DOE to provide services in support of the environmental cleanup of DOE’s Hanford Site. MSA was partly owned by Lockheed Martin and entered into a subcontract worth hundreds of millions of dollars with a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin for the performance of IT services at the Hanford Site. By operation of the prime contract and subcontract, the United States, through DOE, paid 100 percent of the IT services provided by Lockheed Martin at Hanford.

The United States alleged that Mr. Olsen, while he was an employee of Lockheed Martin on loan to MSA as MSA’s CFO, received at least $41,480 in illegal kickback payments from Lockheed Martin to improperly obtain or reward favorable treatment for Lockheed Martin in connection with the subcontract and/or prime contract. The United States’ allegations included that Mr. Olsen assisted in drafting and submitting false statements to DOE regarding the labor rates charged by Lockheed Martin as well as Lockheed Martin’s anticipated profit in providing IT services at Hanford. The United States further alleged that Mr. Olsen was involved with the resulting submission of false and inflated claims to DOE between March 1, 2010 and February 21, 2012, when he received the $41,480 illegal kickback payment from Lockheed Martin rewarding him for the impermissible profit Lockheed Martin reaped as a result of the alleged fraud.

United States Attorney Harrington said, “This settlement requires Mr. Olsen to pay back three times the amount he received from the alleged fraud and holds Mr. Olsen accountable for his actions. It also sends a strong message to those individuals who may engage in similar conduct. I commend the outstanding investigative work performed by the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General, which made this resolution possible.”

The settlement agreement requires Mr. Olsen to pay the full $124,440 settlement amount within five days of signing the agreement. The settlement agreement further requires Mr. Olsen to cooperate with the ongoing investigation of the alleged fraud scheme including submitting to an in person interview with Special Agents for the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General (OIG).

April G. Stephenson, DOE’s Acting Inspector General said, “The Department of Energy Office of Inspector General is committed to ensuring the integrity of our contractors and subcontractors by detecting and holding accountable those who choose to engage in false claim and kickback schemes. This settlement is a result of our staff’s dedicated work to ensure the government is not charged with false and inflated claims. We appreciate the efforts of the DOJ in pursuing this matter and will continue to work collaboratively with them to aggressively investigate those who seek to defraud Department programs.”

This settlement was negotiated by Assistant United States Attorneys Tyler Tornabene and Dan Fruchter, with analytical support from Affirmative Civil Enforcement Investigative Analyst Jeanne Harkleroad, and in conjunction with the Department of Justice Civil Frauds Section and the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General. The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only, and there has been no admission of liability.