Illinois-based truck and engine maker Navistar is accused of bilking the Pentagon out of almost $1.5 billion. The federal government has joined a previously filed whistleblower lawsuit that alleges Navistar’s defense unit fraudulently jacked up prices for components of mine-resistant vehicles used widely by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Navistar is accused of submitting misleading documents – including forged invoices and fabricated, inflated catalog prices – to induce the Pentagon to grant the company a multibillion-dollar contract. Top Navistar officials are alleged to have been aware of the scheme.
In other Chicago-area news:
Ford and McDonald’s are launching a new program that will take coffee waste from the fast-food giant and convert it, believe it or not, into auto parts.
The automaker will use the so-called “chaff” – the dried coffee bean skin that falls off during roasting – to make headlamp housings. Ford plans to start the experiment with the…
