APL to pay US government US$26.3m in fraud case

The Neptune Orient Lines subsidiary is alleged to have knowingly overcharged and double-billed the Department of Defense to transport thousands of containers from ports to inland delivery destinations in the two countries.

The government alleges that APL inflated its invoices by billing in excess of the rate it paid to plug refers holding perishable cargo into a source of electricity at a port in Karachi, Pakistan; billing in excess of the contractual rate to maintain the operation of reefers at Karachi and at US military bases in Afghanistan; and billing for various non-reimbursable services performed by an APL sub-contractor at a Kuwaiti port.

The allegations against APL were filed in San Francisco, California by company employee Jerry Brown. Under the ‘whistleblower’ provisions of the federal False Claims Act, Brown will receive US$5.2m as his statutory share of the proceeds of the settlement.