WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says Harbert Corp. and four affiliates will pay the government $47 million to settle allegations they conspired to rig bids for a sewer system in Cairo, Egypt, financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The U.S. government says that potential competitors agreed to not submit bids or made intentionally high bids in return for a payoff from some of the Harbert entities.
The agreement alleged that the Harbert companies submitted false claims to USAID and caused others to do so on the project built in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The allegations of a bid rigging conspiracy were first made in a lawsuit by a whistleblower.