Centurum Defeats Former Executive’s PPP Fraud Retaliation Suit

The former chief financial officer for Centurum Inc. failed to adequately allege that the company—a federal contractor— violated the False Claims Act by firing him for calling attention to an alleged plan to illegally retain over $3 million in Paycheck Protection Program funding it received, a federal court in Florida said.

Jeffrey Hughes alleged that Centurum received a PPP loan in April 2020, that Hughes was instructed not to report forgiveness of a portion of the loan to the Defense Contract Audit Agency and Defense Contract Management Agency as required by regulations, and that he was terminated for his refusal ...