CHICAGO (CN) - The 7th Circuit tossed a 22-year-old lawsuit claiming that two plane manufacturers cheated the U.S. government in a $700 million deal to supply the government of Greece with 40 F-16 fighter jets in 1987.
The purchase was financed through a U.S. government loan, which reimbursed General Dynamics directly for the jets' production, before Lockheed Martin took over the contract when it bought General Dynamics' production plant.
Dimitri Yannacopoulos, a former General Dynamics employee, first filed suit in 1989, claiming the company owed him a $39 million commission on the contract. A federal jury in Chicago rejected his claims.
Undeterred, Yannacopoulos filed a qui tam lawsuit, which is a kind of whistleblower complaint where a litigant files on behalf of himself and his government. He accused General Dynamics of, among other things, concealing from the U.S. Defense Department that it used $50 million of the loan to support Greek business development. Including the side deal in the jet contract allowed Greece to effectively capitalize a company using U.S. funds, Yannacopoulos claimed.
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