One of the Pentagon’s largest contractors, Raytheon, will pay nearly $1 billion in fines in a case of fraud, price gouging and corruption, the US Department of Justice announced.
“Raytheon Company, a subsidiary of RTX, has agreed to pay more than $950 million to resolve a government investigation into a massive government fraud scheme involving improper pricing on certain government contracts, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and the Arms Export Law. Control Law (AECA)”. – the message said.
In particular, Raytheon was accused of inflating prices for government contracts, defrauding the United States, providing false certification costs, and double-billing the Pentagon.
The US Justice Department said the company participated in a scheme to bribe an official in Qatar and conspired to violate US law by exporting weapons abroad.
Additionally, Raytheon employees provided the Pentagon with false and misleading information during negotiations on two contracts with the United States in the interest of a foreign partner, according to the statement. One of these agreements, according to the Ministry of Justice, included the supply of the Patriot air defense system, and the second included the management and support of a radar station.
Raytheon is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies (RTX), one of the Pentagon’s largest contractors. The company supplies weapons, including to Ukraine, RBC reminds.
RTX representatives at the trial in New York did not admit the company’s guilt on two of the three counts, writes the Associated Press.
The fact that Raytheon was overvaluing was revealed in early 2024 after an audit of the company by US federal authorities. One of the affected parties, according to the South China Morning Post, was Taiwan: the contractor inflated prices to Taipei by hundreds of millions of dollars when supplying weapons, the publication writes.
