An employee of government contractor Raytheon recently has blown the whistle on what he claims was a scheme to defraud the government. However, he was forced to seek out whistleblower protectionafter Raytheon allegedly fired him with no just cause.

Plaintiff Joo L. was an employee for Raytheon, a technology and defense company that specializes in “defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions,” according to their website.

Raytheon was founded in 1922, has 63,000 employees around the world and does $24 billion in sales annually. It regularly contracts with the United States government.

However, Joo claims that he has suffered $3.56 million in damages because he was unjustly fired because he blew the whistle on Raytheon’s time records fraud practices.

Joo worked at Raytheon for two decades while receiving “consistent, excellent performance reviews,” according to Law360. But, in June 2015, he was fired by Raytheon after he filed a formal complaint about the time record keeping practices of Raytheon.

He claimed that his supervisors were expecting their employees to work more than a forty-hour work week, but then reporting to the government that the employees had only worked forty hours total per week.

Allegedly, Joo worked upwards of fifty and sixty-hour workweeks, but was told by his supervisors to report only forty hours of work. He reports that he complained to his supervisors about this discrepancy.

When he put in a formal complaint about the underreporting of hours, the company’s ethics manager said that it would be investigated. Instead, Joo asserts, the company accused him of not working all of the hours he did report. He believes that this accusation was in retaliation for his formal complaint.

Law360 reports that his attorney said, “They needed to get rid of him and they needed to do it quick.”

Joo was allegedly barred from working on any other government contracts in any future jobs he might get. Additionally, his marriage fell apart and he lost his home.

Joo claims that his $3.56 million damages claim includes $1 million for past and future emotional distress, $442,763 in past earnings lost and $2,121,878 in lost future earnings. At the time of his termination, he was earning $160,000 per year.

He asserts that he was not offered whistleblower protection, and that instead he was fired as a punishment for bringing up the fraudulent practices of Raytheon.

Whistleblower Protection Under Federal Law

Whistleblower protection is something afforded by federal law to those persons who seek to uncover illegal practices by those who work with the government or government agencies.

Under the federal False Claims Act, an individual is offered whistleblower protection. He or she may initiate what is called a qui tam lawsuit that shows evidence of fraud against the government.

As part of the False Claims Act, a whistleblower is offered whistleblower protection and can sue their employer if they are fired or suffer any other type of retaliation as a result of the whistleblowing.

This Whistleblower Protection Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-05697, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.