United States v. Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROYCE C. LAMBERTH, Chief Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

In the midst of the Civil War, Congress passed the False Claims Act to stop the “plundering of the public treasury” that had resulted from the “frauds and corrup tions practiced in obtaining pay from the Government during the present war.” Act of Mar. 2, 1863, ch. 67, § 1, 12 Stat. 696; United States v. McNinch, 356 U.S. 595, 599, 78 S.Ct. 950, 2 L.Ed.2d 1001 (1958); Cong. Globe, 37th Cong., 3d Sess. 955-56 (1863) (statement of Sen. Jacob M. Howard). 1 Invoking the twenty-first century iteration of the statute, 31 U.S.C. § 3729,…