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Bid Rigging and Underbidding
Manufacturers and suppliers that form cartels to fix prices or engage in collusive bidding to manipulate the government procurement process violate the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and antitrust laws. Contractors that falsely certify that their prices are independent and not the result of collusion may also be subject to False Claims Act liability. Murphy Anderson has decades of experience representing qui tam relators who blow the whistle on bid-rigging and price-fixing schemes. Murphy Anderson is appellate counsel and local trial counsel in the long-running case United States ex rel. Kurt Bunk v. Gosselin Worldwide Moving N.V. et al., No. 1:02cv1168 (AJT/TRJ) (E.D. Va.). In this case, Murphy Anderson’s client Kurt Bunk blew the whistle on a cartel of European moving companies that colluded to set prices for the movement of personal property of American military personnel across the Atlantic. This case resulted in one of the largest jury verdicts ever awarded in a procurement False Claims Act case.
Contractors that purposefully underbid in order to win a government contract knowing that they will need to seek price and contract modifications also potentially violate the False Claims Act.