Whistleblower in Ogden could get millions

OGDEN — It's been four years since a North Ogden resident filed a whistleblower lawsuit against a giant defense contractor based in Brigham City. His trial is still at least a year away, but he could potentially be awarded millions of dollars.

The whistleblower is an ATK Thiokol employee named Kendall Dye, who claims he discovered his company was knowingly selling possibly faulty powerful flares to the U.S. Army and Air Force without fully testing them first. According to documents filed in federal court, Dye was allegedly told to keep quiet about his supposed discovery. The government joined his lawsuit and is now suing the manufacturer for millions of dollars. The case is still pending.

But a just-decided case against a pharmaceutical company shows that in larger suits, whistleblowers, like Dye, can take a reasonable chunk of settlement money. Under a 20-year-old federal law, whistleblowers can file lawsuits against their companies that may have defrauded the government and win up to multimillion-dollar awards.

Recently, a former quality manager of GlaxoKlineSmith, Cheryl D. Eckerd, became $96 million richer after her company settled outside of court for $750 million. Her case had been pending since 2004. Eckerd accused GKS of knowingly manufacturing, distributing and selling products — Paxil CR, Avandamet, Kytril and Bactroban — whose strength, purity and/or quality fell below the standards required by the FDA.

Utah received $500,000 of the settlement money.

"I think it's good that someone did step forward," said Paul Murphy, with the Utah Attorney General's office. "If my parents or my children or anyone I know was taking these drugs, I would want to know about this. It's important to protect people, and this whistleblower did a great job in reporting this."

Dye and Eckerd both filed under the Federal False Claims act, enacted during the Civil War to address fraud against the government. It was modernized in the late '80s to motivate individuals with knowledge of fraud against the government to come forward. Under the act, an individual or company can be brought to court who "knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used, a false record or statement to get a false or fraudulent claim paid or approved by the Government."

Matthew Howell, one of Dye's attorneys, said the government has not listed a specific amount in damages. On court documents, the government has listed payments made to ATK, which exceed $80 million. It will also be seeking reimbursement for attorney costs and is asking for up to three times its total damages.