FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CIV WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1995 (202) 616-2765 TDD (202) 514-1888 CALIFORNIA FIRM PAYS U.S. $1 MILLION TO SETTLE CLAIMS WASHINGTON, D.C. -- BEI Sensors and Systems Inc. has paid the United States $1 million to resolve claims it failed to properly test devices used to measure the gravitational pull on Air Force planes and pilots, the Department of Justice announced today. Assistant Attorney General Frank Hunger of the Civil Division said the agreement resolved part of a suit originally filed May 12, 1993, against the San Francisco, California, company by Chandabot Kim, a former employee, under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The United States intervened in part in the suit in August 1995. The settlement pertains to that portion of the case in which the United States intervened and settles specific claims that were first raised by the United States when it intervened and not raised in the original suit. The Department said BEI failed to conduct proper temperature tests on one model of the devices, called accelerometers, from 1989 through 1992 and also failed to perform a random 10 percent test of another model it manufactured and refurbished from 1987 through 1994. The accelerometers measured the pressure exerted on the body and or equipment when the planes accelerated, banked or made high-speed turns. Among the aircraft that used the devices was the F-15 fighter. Under the qui tam provisions, a private party can file a suit on behalf of the United States and recover a portion of any recovery. ##### 95-607