The US Attorney’s Office of New Mexico announced on 25 June 2025 that they have settled the civil claims with Noble Supply & Logistics related to the overcharging of the US Air Force at Cannon Air Force Base. Let’s see what the allegations are and how the government agencies hold the contractor accountable.
Contractor Overcharging Air Force Base Settlement
The Noble Supply & Logistics will pay the settlement amount of $1 million as a civil penalty and restitution to the Department of Defence. The Contractor Overcharging Air Force Base settlement resolved the claims that the defendant had violated the Air Force Base contract.
The contract was supporting the Contractor Operated Civil Engineer Supply Store of Mexico’s Cannon Air Force Base. The violation of the contract requirements for competitive quotes and pricing had led to overpayment and violation of the False Claims Act.
The cases like this put focus on the role of the whistleblowers who disclosed the fraud or schemes like this that misled the government. The US Attorney says they expect the contractor to do business with the US agencies with full honesty, as they complied with the contract requirements.
What’s the Contractor overcharging Air Force Base settlement about?
The Department of the Air Force entered into a contract with Noble Supply & Logistics through the 27th Special Operations Contracting Squadron at CAFB, where the contract states that the defendant will provide materials and supplies for the civil engineering requirements and base infrastructure.
The US Attorney alleges that the defendant violated the contract requirements and failed to meet the standards. Here are the allegations against Noble Supply & Logistics under the settlement:
- The investigations say the defendant violated the pricing rules as they showed higher prices and withheld the actual local supplier pricing.
- The agency accused the defendant of manipulating the competitive quotes as they submitted the altered quotes, hiding cheaper bids or inflated quotes to show the higher prices.
- The violation of pricing and manipulation of the competitive quotes has led the Air Force department to pay more than the actual price, which wasted the taxpayers’ money.
- The agency claims that when government officials flagged the quotes, the company again provided the false quotes to deceive the government.
- The government says the company also charged the shipping charges separately when it was combined in the total price in the quotes by the vendors.
- The fabrication of quotes and the misrepresentation of money spent violated the False Claims Act, and it qualified as fraudulent billing. This means the defendant knowingly overcharged the Department of the Air Force for the supplies and materials.
- So, the government says Nobles fails to act even after the multiple discoveries from the CAFB.
How is the settlement fund under the Air Base settlement distributed?
According to the settlement details released by the US Attorney’s Office of New Mexico, Nobles will pay a $1,034,495.99 settlement amount to resolve the allegations against them. The settlement amount of $1 million has the $250,497.94 in restitution, and the rest will be paid to the United States.
The restitution will be paid to the Department of Defence as direct compensation for the actual loss and the payment that was wrongly taken. The payment is scheduled to be paid by the defendant in semi-annual installments through January 2028 with interest.
The interest on the payment will be applicable when the defendant fails to pay the payment on schedule, and it will be applied to the unpaid portion, so the longer the defendant takes to make the payment, the longer the interest will increase.
Is this settlement an admission of liability?
If you are wondering, Nobles has agreed to the wrongdoing, then knows that they have denied the allegations and agreed to settle the case with no admission to liability. Such fraudulent activities done by companies with the government are very common, and this settlement indicated that such cases need to be brought to light.
The Defence Criminal Investigative Service officers say this settlement shows their commitment to holding contractors accountable for their misconduct and protecting taxpayers’ money to ensure it is used properly for the welfare, development, and protection of the citizens.