KCF Technologies in State College agrees to pay $1.2M after federal investigation
A State College-based industrial technology company agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to resolve allegations the business knowingly defrauded the federal government, the Justice Department wrote in a statement Friday.
Investigators alleged KCF Technologies improperly billed the government between 2016 and 2019 for contracts the business had with the Defense Department, including the Army and Navy.
The company billed labor time spent on commercial contracts to the government, U.S. Attorney John Gurganus alleged in a written statement. Federal investigators spent hours in May 2019 searching two of the company’s locations in downtown State College.
KCF, a company co-founded by Penn State alumnus Jeremy Frank in 2000, did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. It’s since become one of the top 50 employers in Centre County.
“Companies settle civil disputes regularly for a variety of reasons, the mere cost of the litigation frequently being a primary one,” the company wrote in a statement.
The Justice Department brought in more than $5.6 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the federal government during the fiscal year ending in September. That was the second largest annual total in history.