Medal of Honor Winner Sues Defense Contractor for Smears After He Objected to High-Tech Sales to Pakistan
Update: Company settles the lawsuit with Dakota Meyer - LINK
In September, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's most prestigious military award, to Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the marine who saved 36 of his comrades during an ambush in Afghanistan.
Obama called Meyer one of the most "down-to-earth guys that you will ever meet."
But today Meyer, 23, is having trouble getting a job because of allegations by defense contractor BAE Systems that he has a drinking problem and is mentally unstable. Meyer filed legal papers Monday claiming the allegations were in retaliation for objections he raised about BAE's alleged decision to sell high-tech sniper scopes to the Pakistani military.
After leaving active duty in May 2010, Meyer worked at Ausgar Technologies, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business in California, until April 2011.
"He exhibited a maturity for his age and an insightful capability to get the job done and provide recommendations to improve on what we are doing. I was very impressed while he was working for us. He was an outstanding employee," Tom Grant, a retired military naval officer and a senior program manager at Ausgar Technologies, told ABC News.
When asked about the allegations of mental instability and a drinking problem, Grant said, "While Meyer was working for me, I never saw evidence of either of those issues."
Family that raised Sgt. Meyer say that he doesn't drink.
BAE Systems has been in big trouble before
BAE Systems plc (BAES) pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia to conspiring to defraud the United States by impairing and impeding its lawful functions, to make false statements about its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance program, and to violate the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), announced Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grindler.
BAES was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates to pay a $400 million criminal fine, one of the largest criminal fines in the history of DOJ’s ongoing effort to combat overseas corruption in international business and enforce U.S. export control laws.
"Today, BAE Systems pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully making false statements to U.S. government agencies. The actions of BAE Systems impeded U.S. efforts to ensure international trade is free of corruption and to maintain control over sensitive U.S. technology," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grindler.
BAE Systems has agreed to pay about $16 million in penalties in response to federal charges involving bribes paid by Jacksonville-based Armor Holdings to secure international business.
BAE bought the company in 2007, after the incidents took place, but still operates a facility at the Jacksonville International Tradeport, employing about 350 people manufacturing body armor and forensics-related products.
The fines include $10.3 million to the U.S. Department of Justice and $5.7 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
BAE accepted responsibility for an Armor Holdings payment of more than $200,000 to a sales agent who it knew would pass a portion on to a United Nations official. In return, Armor received $7.1 million worth of contracts for a profit of $1.6 million, according to the SEC.
The company also admitted that $4.4 million in bribes were kept off its books.
In two separate announcements, BAE was fined £256million by the U.S. department of justice after pleading guilty to conspiring to make false statements to its government.
This fine relates to a claim that payments were made to a Saudi official in a £40billion contract to supply military equipment, including Tornado fighter jets, to Saudi Arabia.
The Americans were furious because the cash had been funnelled through U.S. banks.
They also wanted to make it clear to BAE that such tactics are not acceptable in the U.S. - where it is now a major player.
In Britain, BAE must fork out £30million. It reached an agreement with the Serious Fraud Office that it will plead guilty to a lesser offence under the Companies Act 1985 of failing to keep reasonably accurate accounting records for its activities in Tanzania.
This relates to an £88million contract in 1999 to supply a radar system to the country, which had no real use for such a state of the art system. A former marketing adviser in Tanzania is said to have pocketed payments of almost £8million.
BAE Systems has agreed to pay fines of up to $79m (£48.7m) to the US government for breaking military export rules, drawing a line under corruption investigations into the British company on both sides of the Atlantic.
Europe's biggest defence company and a major supplier to the US military said on Tuesday that the latest penalties formed part of a civil settlement with the US state department. The decision comes after BAE, which makes around half of its revenues in the US, last year admitted making false statements over the sale of fighter planes to the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The latest penalty comes on top of $450m in fines from the US and Britain revealed by BAE last year, following long-running corruption investigations into defence deals in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary.