Fluor Division Settles Whistle-Blower Suit

IRVINE —  Fluor Daniel Fernald will pay $8.4 million to settle a whistle-blower suit filed by an employee working on the cleanup of a closed Department of Energy uranium plant near Cincinnati.

The 1993 suit asserted that the unit of Fluor Corp. overbilled the Department of Energy by more than $92 million. It sought fines and damages of more than $300 million.

Fluor denied any wrongdoing.

“The suit was becoming far too costly to litigate and had become a distraction,” John Bradburne, president of Fluor Daniel Fernald, said in a statement. Fluor had spent $2 million in legal fees on the case.

The employee, William Watt, will receive $4.1 million of the settlement, including $3 million for the “retaliation” the company took after he filed the suit, said his attorney, Phyllis Brown. Watt was transferred after the suit was filed and forced to leave the company in January 1995, Brown said.

Fluor will pay $2.6 million to the government to settle the charges, and $1.7 million in attorneys fees.

The Department of Energy processed uranium at the plant for four decades until it was closed in 1989. The Fluor unit was hired for cleanup.

Shares of Irvine-based Fluor closed Friday at $54.785, down $1.375 in NYSE trading.