The Department of Justice is investigating a Los Angeles County-based company’s billing practices, the company said last week.
Monrovia-based AeroViornment Inc. said the Department’s civil fraud section is looking into billing rates for maintenance work, time and materials the military drone maker billed the government on contracts dating back to fiscal-year 2006.
The company said in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation and added that it does not expect the investigation to have an effect on its business.
“This is an example of the uptick in civil fraud investigations and audits we have been seeing over the last twelve months,” says Stephen Mancini, head of KMFM’s white collar Crimes practice group. “Responding to government inquiries in a prompt and forthright manner is essential to resolving such investigations efficiently and expeditiously. We are seeing a five fold increase in these kinds of audits as the Department of Justice seeks to enforce the goal of greater transparency in government contract work,” Mancini adds.
The company said that a similar investigation took place in February by the Defense Contract Audit Agency and found the company’s billing practices adequate. The company has received more than $50 million in orders from the government since that investigation.
However, investors showed concern, sending shares in the company, which are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange, tumbling nearly 8 percent after the announcement was made.
