The U.S. District Court for Maryland unsealed a complaint, Elgasim Mohamed Fadlalla ex rel. v. DynCorp International, LLC. et al, CA GJH-15-1806, that details massive violations of the False Claim Act (“FCA”) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”).  The lawsuit was filed by twenty-nine (29) security-cleared, U.S.-citizen relator/plaintiffs who served as linguists to United States Army Intelligence & Security Command,and who were brought to Kuwait by Global Linguist Solutions (“GLS”), a joint venture between DynCorp and AECOM. In addition to DynCorp, AECOM, and GLS, the False Claim Act complaint names as defendants Shee Atika Languages, LLC; INVIZION, Inc.; TigerSwan, Thomas Wright, Inc.; and KMS Solutions, Inc.  The detailed, 116-page complaint asserts that:

• DynCorp and AECOM, through GLS, engaged in massive small-business, veteran-, disabled, and minority- set-a-side fraud on a $4.6 billion INSCOM contract and made further false claims to the U.S. in bidding on a $9 billion follow-on contract (pursuant to the “presumed loss” rule of The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, damage for such SBA fraud is set by statute as all the money paid under the $4.6 billion contract; pursuant to the FCA, such damages are trebled);
• GLS committed perjury in testimony to the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
• DynCorp and AECOM, through GLS, brought the linguists to Kuwait in violation of Kuwait’s Private Sector Labor Law, the TVPRA, and international conventions prohibiting human trafficking, including by confiscating their passports, and lying to Kuwaiti immigration authorities about the linguists’ presence in the country.  After GLS’s illegal conduct was unveiled to Kuwaiti immigration authorities, Kuwait law enforcement authorities launched a nationwide manhunt for these U.S.-citizen linguists, some of whom were arrested and incarcerated.  The massive Kuwaiti police action resulted in a diplomatic stand-off between Kuwait and the United States wherein the linguists were held against their will in Kuwait for months, denied access to medical care, and were confined to filthy, flooded, mite-infested, over-crowded, and inhumane living quarters.  The U.S.-citizen linguists were forced by GLS and Kuwaiti law enforcement authorities to confess to crimes they did not commit.  A group of U.S.-citizen linguists who refused to falsely confess to crimes were held against their will for additional months.