| Boeing disputes lockheed lawsuit { July 31 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Boeing%20ContractThursday, July 31, 2003 · Last updated 5:55 p.m. PThttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Boeing%20ContractThursday, July 31, 2003 · Last updated 5:55 p.m. PT
Boeing disputes Lockheed lawsuit
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BETHESDA, Md. -- Boeing Co. claims in a court filing that it did not engage in racketeering or violate antitrust rules by allegedly using internal documents obtained from rival Lockheed Martin Corp. to win an Air Force rocket launch contract.
Boeing filed a motion Thursday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit Lockheed Martin filed in June, alleging that Boeing used Lockheed trade secrets provided by a former Lockheed employee to win the $1.88 billion contract in 1999.
Lockheed sued Boeing and three of the Chicago-based company's former employees in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla. The lawsuit alleges Boeing and the employees broke federal and Florida racketeering and antitrust laws.
In the motion, Boeing says it didn't engage in racketeering or use the Lockheed documents to try to monopolize the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program, or EELV.
Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said the Lockheed documents weren't used to gain an edge in the contract competition.
"These claims have no relation to the underlying events and are an improper attempt to twist the facts into something they are not," he said.
Lockheed Martin declined to comment on the motion.
The EELV contract to launch satellites was eventually split between Boeing and Lockheed, but Boeing was given the majority of the launches - 21 to Lockheed's seven.
But after an investigation, the Air Force last week banned Boeing indefinitely from bidding on satellite launching contracts. It also took away seven satellite launches because of the company's use of Lockheed's records.
Former Boeing executives Kenneth Branch and William Erskine face federal conspiracy and other charges in federal court in Los Angeles. They and a third Boeing worker, Larry Satchell, who has not been charged criminally, are all named in Lockheed's lawsuit.
Boeing CEO Phil Condit apologized for the employee's actions in a full page ads run in several major newspapers in June. The company's 78,000 defense workers halted work for four hours Wednesday to undergo ethics training, Beck said, and Boeing has hired a former U.S. senator to review the incident and determine what internal changes are necessary.
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