Judge Awards $4.6 Million in Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Alabama Transit System

A U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) must pay $4,315,403.22 in damages based on a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit filed in 2018 by a former employee and former board chair alleging the agency didn’t comply with all federal regulations regarding grant funding from the Federal Transit Authority (FTA).

The amount is triple the base damage amount of $1,438,467.74, as required by the FCA.

In the order, U.S. District Judge Corey L. Maze also ruled The BJCTA must also pay “an amount for reasonable [plaintiff] expenses which the court finds to have been necessarily incurred, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.”

Read the source article at al.com