A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against The Technological Research and Development Authority (TRDA) who is accused of construction of an office building at the Melbourne Airport that was outside the scope of the NASA grants awarded to TRDA and contrary to the terms of the EDA grant awarded jointly to TRDA and the airport authority, which prohibited combining funds from more than one federal agency for the project. The case was filed in March of 2012.
Relatedly, the Melbourne International Airport and its governing body, the Melbourne Airport Authority, have agreed to pay the United States $4 million to resolve alleged False Claims Act violations based on the same events described in the government’s lawsuit against TRDA.
