Every now and again it is good to be humbled. As we go skipping down the path of life, once in a while something very unexpected will come out of the woodwork and smack you along side the head. That is what happened to me when the FBI came a calling and read me my Miranda Rights - twice.
First, a bit about my background. My police, military and traffic records are about as clean as you could want. I have had one moving violation in my over 45 years of driving - and that was when I clipped a do not pass line after a slow moving garbage truck pulled right in front of me. It was a cheap call and I thought I could win in a court of law, but the court date they gave me was when I was going to be in Australia on business. So I let it go and paid the fine. That being said, my records are clean. Not that I have been all that good, I have been fairly good and mostly lucky.
Shortly after starting my final job in the Defense Industry, I received a phone call while at work. To my surprise, it was the FBI. They informed me I was "a person of interest" in a Federal investigation and they would like to talk to me. They asked if I would come in and answer some questions. I agreed and the next day I took some time off and went downtown to meet the FBI.
When I arrived at the Federal Building, I was ushered in to a small interrogation room. Two agents came in and showed me their badges. Not really knowing what this was about, I started to ask questions. One agent looked at the other and asked if I had been "read in" as yet. They thought I should not be talking until they were sure I had the Miranda Rights read to me. As they were reading me my rights, I got this sinking feeling I was being set up for something I knew nothing about.
Even though I was new at things like this, I told them I had better get some legal representation before I said anything further. However, I did ask them what I was being charged with. One of the agents said " Right now, nothing. That is in the hands of the United States Attorney who is looking into this matter. Currently he is considering a potential violation of United States Code 3729-3733, the False Claims Act".
I left the Federal Building, went home and made some phone calls. I called my former company and told them what had happened. The Division Attorney told me he was not surprised by this news as the FBI had been there with a search warrant and took copies of my old files. By the end of the day, I was "lawyered up" with three lawyers, compliments of my former company. I also called the Division Attorney at my new company and advised him of my situation. He was good friends with the Division Attorney from my old company so he told me he would make contact and get all the specifics.
The next part of this could be called "let no good deed go unpunished". This can be very technical, so I will edit out some of the mundane details. I was the team lead on a major negotiation. It was a big deal and the team was working to find some creative ways to keep the price of the product down. The company sold a similar product in the commercial market - and sold quite a few of them. The Navy was interested in a product with the same capabilities, but needed something with a more robust enclosure. We came up with the idea of taking the commercial unit through 60% of the manufacturing process and then having it transferred it to our division. A more ruggedized enclosure would then be applied. This would save considerable time and money by not having to remove a perfectly good commercial enclosure and replace it with the more rugged enclosure. For this multi-year deal, it would save the Navy hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So what is the big deal one might think? The fly in the ointment was the government had 100% audit rights over anything manufactured for defense. However, with any commercial item, the government had no audit rights. Therefore, because 60% of this product was commercial, the government had no cost visibility. Most all the government people we worked with understood the logic and accepted the approach. All were okay that is, except one auditor. Unknown to anyone, he filed a whistle blower report stating there was suspected "defective pricing" on this deal. If the government found that to be true, defective pricing could lead to a False Claims violation. Again, a perfect example of "let no good deed go unpunished".
A few weeks passed and I received yet another phone call from the FBI. They wanted to see me along with my legal representative. I had to take some more time off of work and go down to the Federal Building once again. Once we arrived, there was some glitch in their records and they did not know if they read me my rights as yet. I assured them they had, but they did it again anyway. My lawyer and I were there for over two hours and this time the questions were more direct and everything we said was recorded. When we leaving, one of the agents told us that the United States Attorney was probably going to convene a Grand Jury to hear this case. If that happens, I will be summoned.
After another week or two, I received another phone call. There was an agent in the lobby of my company and he was there to serve me with a summons. Myself, the president of my former company and three other employees were to testify in front of a Grand Jury. The sinking feeling I had when I had the first FBI phone call had returned. For someone who had never really been in trouble, I felt my life was about to change.
Without going into detail, the day arrived for the Grand Jury. We all had our lawyers with us, however the rules of a Grand Jury are the defense lawyers are not allowed to be with us during the questioning. I was on the stand for over an hour. The only expression I can use for this experience was gut wrenching - it was horribly gut wrenching. After being grilled by the FBI for hours and then the United States Attorney, I was starting to question which end was up. We were finally dismissed and we all went home to be with our families. The government told us they would contact our lawyers with what the next step was.
Weeks passed, and then months. No word from anybody. Finally one day I got a call from my lawyer telling me the government was not going to pursue this matter as even though they did not like it, they could not prove any wrong doing. Wrong doing? All we did was try to save the Navy many thousands of dollars!
The lesson I learned from this is simple - doing the right thing, the legal thing, sometimes is not good enough. It was an experience I will never forget. After being a "good guy" most of my life, it gave me a glimpse of what being a "bad guy" might feel like. In this case, a good deed almost caused me to be unjustly punished, and I will never forget it.
Very Interesting!!!
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