美国司法部已经加入了一个告密者lawsuit against AECOM in federal false claims court. Under the lawsuit, a a project manager charges that the firm submitted more than $100 million in fraudulent claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for damage to various client facilities caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and that when the employee informed management, they did nothing in response.

In a document filed May 29 with the federal court in New Orleans, DOJ said it was intervening to support a settlement with one former AECOM client, locally-based Xavier University, for its participation in the alleged claims fraud. The school agreed to pay $12 million to resolve its role in the false claim and to cooperate in the case against AECOM and any other parties and in any related litigation. The lawsuit had been previously sealed.

其他former clients cited in the whistleblower complaint include Dillard University, the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the city's public school system.

DOJ says "claims alleged in the lawsuit, including those resolved by Xavier, are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability."

AECOM在一份声明中说：“令人失望的是，在卡特里娜飓风飓风后的15年后，联邦政府希望从教育机构中夺回资金，这些机构遭受了暴风雨影响的巨大损害。”它发誓要捍卫自己的工作，并说这是在联邦政府的指导和监督下进行的。

The whistleblower lawsuit was filed in 2016 by Robert Romero, an AECOM project specialist. He claims that company employees repeatedly submitted false or misleading information to FEMA for clients by fraudulently increasing the amount of hurricane damage to buildings.

He contends that company management knew by 2011 that at least one employee, Randall Krause, was committing the fraud but did not inform the government or mitigate the over payments. AECOM later fired Krause.

司法部说，罗梅罗（Romero）仍然受AECOM的雇用，根据泽维尔大学（Xavier University）的定居点获得了230万美元的收入。

投诉称，所谓的欺诈包括对不存在的混凝土建筑基金会和虚拟地下室的损害的要求，损坏物品的成本估算的系统性通货膨胀，建筑平方英尺的通货膨胀以及提交欺诈性损害照片的膨胀。

In some cases, AECOM took advantage of a FEMA policy called the “50% rule” by manipulating repair and replacement estimates so the agency would pay for full replacement when it should have paid only for less expensive repairs, the complaint said.

AECOM辩称，FEMA指示承包商向申请人“说”，并付出额外的努力，以获取要求损害赔偿的联邦付款。Aecom在一份声明中说，政府现在已经“改变了他们的曲调”。

But Romero's complaint also contends that AECOM benefited from the fraud through contract renewals. “FEMA evaluated contractors based on metrics including total productivity," it says, which enabled AECOM to charge FEMA "for hundreds of additional billable hours.”

According to DOJ, AECOM received more than $300 million between 2005 and 2019 from FEMA as a technical assistance contractor that conducted site evaluations and prepared and reviewed damage and repair estimates used to determine whether applicants were eligible for public assistance funds.

诉讼说，Xavier大学“有意，故意的失明”提出了有关其财产损害程度的虚假和误导性的文件。Specifically, it received funding based on damage to a gymnasium’s concrete floating slab foundation when the building had no such foundation, said the complaint, which also noted that it received funds to replace its electric distribution system that was not damaged by the storm and ran for six years post-Katrina.

司法部没有干预针对迪拉德大学，大主教管区或学校制度的欺诈诉讼，这些诉讼也涉嫌提交虚假和误导性损害索赔。该部门没有说明任何不干预的理由。