Sikorsky Aircraft To Pay $3.5 Million Over Claims Of Inaccurate Pricing

March 31--STRATFORD -- Sikorsky Aircraft has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle allegations that the company, which makes Black Hawk helicopters, failed to disclose accurate and current prices for parts, which resulted in the government paying artificially high prices for helicopter repairs for more than 3 1/2 years.

Connecticut's U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly said Monday in a statement that the government alleges the company violated the "False Claims Act" through the submission of inflated costs for spare parts for work on helicopters in Corpus Christi, Texas, from February 2008 to September 2011. The government's claim is that Sikorsky submitted the inflated costs to the Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, which is one of the purchasing units of the Army charged with purchasing spare parts for the Black Hawk.

"In this era of shrinking defense budgets, it is particularly important to guard the public coffers," Daly said. "Failure to disclose accurate, complete and current cost and pricing data created an uneven playing field in the negation process, which tilted unfairly in Sikorsky's favor."

Paul Jackson, a Sikorsky spokesman, said in a statement that the company "is pleased to have reached an agreement to resolve this matter with the Army and looks forward to continuing to work closely with the Army to maintain its fleet of Black Hawk helicopters."

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