Chantilly, Virginia, contractor SOC LLC. agreed to settle a False Claims Act whistleblower suit regarding their bomb dogs for $259,353.60, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
SOC was contracted to supply bomb-sniffing dogs and their handlers to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Under the terms of the deal, SOC handlers were supposed to give the dogs four hours of training in explosives detection per week.
Whistleblower Jamie Morris worked for SOC at the Baghdad embassy as a kennel master from June 2012 to April 2017, and worked for SOC there again as a handler from September 2018 to February 2020, according to his LinkedIn page.
On March 17, 2021, Mr. Morris filed a whistleblower suit alleging that SOC handlers and trainers falsely reported that weekly training had been performed as contractually required, even during weeks when no training or less than four hours of training was carried out.
The civil claims settled by the agreement are only allegations, and no civil legal liability has been assessed to the company, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Day & Zimmermann.
The Justice Department did not publicize how much money Mr. Morris will be due as a whistleblower in this case.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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