Military Supplier to Pay $850,000 to Settle Breach of Contract and False Claims Act Allegations

NEWARK, N.J. – A supplier of vehicle parts to the military has agreed to pay $850,000 to resolve allegations that it breached contracts with the United States and violated the False Claims Act by selling items that were manufactured in prohibited countries, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced today.

The settlement resolves allegations that from 2012 to 2019 Brighton Cromwell LLC knowingly sold items to the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency that it failed to ascertain and verify were manufactured by or for its suppliers in non-compliant countries under either the Buy American Act or the Trade Agreements Act, in violation of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. The United States also alleged that Brighton Cromwell was unjustly enriched and breached its contracts with the United States because it sold items to the Defense Logistics Agency that were manufactured or assembled in prohibited countries.

Acting U.S. Attorney Honig credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Northeast Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Hegarty; and special agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Northeast Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael T. Wiest, with the investigation leading to the agreement.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark C. Orlowski of the U.S. Attorney’s Government Fraud Unit in Newark, along with Senior Trial Counsel Art Coulter and Trial Attorney Eric Schmelzer of the Civil Frauds Section of the Civil Division in Washington, D.C.

The claims settled by this agreement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.