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.
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95-607