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- cross-posted to:
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RTX CORPORATION, the weapons giant formerly (and better) known as Raytheon, agreed on Wednesday to pay almost $1 billion to resolve allegations that it defrauded the U.S. government and paid bribes to secure business with Qatar.
“Raytheon engaged in criminal schemes to defraud the U.S. government,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin Driscoll of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division on Wednesday. “Such corrupt and fraudulent conduct, especially by a publicly traded U.S. defense contractor, erodes public trust and harms the DOD, businesses that play by the rules, and American taxpayers.”
RTX, as part of this agreement that spanned multiple investigations into its business, admitted to engaging in two separate schemes to defraud the Defense Department, which included deals for a radar system and Patriot missile systems. It also agreed to enter a separate deferred prosecution agreement, which requires increased government oversight and transparency for the next three years, in connection with the Qatari kickbacks.
No, they shouldn’t just pay a fine to get out of this -especially since it’s just a measly one billion dollars “cost of business” fine. They should lose all government business for a period of years.
Nothing more will happen. The big defense contractors get a free pass because they are the funnel that brings money into the US from countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afganistan, etc. The billion dollar fine is theatre so the few americans that are even paying attention won’t make a stink.
Absolutely agree. Aside from any punishment, If our government is willing to continue to work with fraudulent partners, what the hell does that say about our government?