A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Gilbane Building Company. W.G. Mills Incorporated ,a company with which Gilbane merged in November 2010, is accused of creating a front company, Veterans Constructors Incorporated (VCI), in order to be awarded a Coast Guard contract that was designated for Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). To qualify as a SDVOSB, a company must be operated and managed by service-disabled veterans and must not be affiliated with a large company.
The whistleblowers' settlement share has not been determined.
Originally filed by two whistleblowers in May 2011, the government's lawsuit alleged that W.G. Mills created VCI merely as a contracting vehicle and that VCI’s affiliation with W.G. Mills rendered it ineligible to be awarded set-aside contracts for SDVOSBs. The government further alleged that W.G. Mills performed the work that VCI was required to perform under the Coast Guard contract, and alleged that if the Coast Guard and the Small Business Administration (SBA) had known that VCI was nothing but a front company, the Coast Guard would not have awarded it the contract.
