Maersk Unit, Subcontractor Fined for Falsifying Records Under U.S. Defense Contract

Photo credit: Farrell Lines

Farrell Lines, a subsidiary of the Maersk Line, Limited, and a subcontractor have paid about $3.66 million in civil fines for submitting “recreated” weight tickets in billing invoices.

According to the U.S. Justice Deptartment, under Farrell’s contract with the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), it was required to perform international door-to-door and/or port-to-port transportation services to move Department of Defense and other Government approved cargo into and out of Afghanistan via multiple modes of transportation, including air, sea, and land.

Farrell subcontracted its work on the contract to DAMCO USA, and the price of the contract was based almost exclusively on the weight of the shipments, and documented cargo weights, consisting of “weight tickets” issued by a certified commercial scale for each cargo container, needed to be included with billing invoices to the government.

USTRANSCOM found that 563 weight tickets, submitted by Farrell, to support their billing invoices were “recreated” by Damco employees and not authentic weight tickets.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that both Farrell and Damco were cooperative in the investigation.