A Japanese fiber manufacturer is now responsible for paying $66 million for alleged violations of the False Claims Act, which will result in a whistleblower award for the person who came forward with the information that was used to pursue the case.

According to that case, the fiber company in question, Toyobo Co., Ltd. and Toyobo America Inc. sold defective Zylon fiber that was ultimately used in bulletproof vests purchased for tribal, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies across the country.

The Justice Department discovered, based on the insight of an insider who will now receive a whistleblower award, that those vests would not function as intended and could lead to unnecessary injuries or deaths.

The Justice Department pursued the case, and in these situations in which an employee or insider came forward with relevant information that ultimately led to the recovery of funds in a False Claims Act case, a whistleblower award will be assessed based on a portion of the overall money recovered.

In order to encourage those with inside information about criminal activity or fraud to come forward, the government has specific protections in place for whistleblowers.

In addition to being protected against retaliation and discrimination in the workplace after lodging a whistleblower complaint, the involved person may also be entitled to a portion of recovered funds for those cases brought under the False Claims Act.

The allegations in this particular whistleblower award and defective product case include that between 2001 and 2005, the sole manufacturer of Zylon fiber, Toyobo, knew that this material degraded quickly in typical humidity and heat conditions, and that this degradation ultimately rendered them unfit for use because they would not be able to capture a bullet.

Misleading degradation data was allegedly marketed by the company, according to research from the Justice Department. The whistleblower award case determined that Toyobo actively marketed these fibers as safe for use despite the awareness of the defect.

This meant that the government’s efforts to determine the true effect of degradation were slowed by several years as a result of the marketing material published by the Japanese-based company. Ultimately the National Institute of Justice had to decertify every vest containing Zylon.

The civil division of the body armor industry has been under investigation, and the recent whistleblower award case through the False Claims Act indicates just how important someone’s insight into dangerous practices can be for preventing fraud, injuries or even death.

More than $66 million was recovered in the case from 16 different entities involved in the sale, distribution or manufacture of Zylon vests.

A criminal justice professor at Lake Superior University will be eligible for the whistleblower award after coming forward to pursue the case under the False Claims Act. That whistleblower award will be more than $5.7 million due to the total amount recovered.

Any person who has insider information about alleged false or fraudulent actions on the part of a company may be eligible to receive a whistleblower award.