Opinion ID: 3031341
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Counts Eight and Nine:31 Alleged Fraudulent

Text: Inducement of the Navy’s Exercise of its Options for a Third and Fourth Oiler In his Second Amended Complaint, Atkinson claims that the Navy’s exercise of the contract option to order two additional ships under the Oiler deal was based on Penn Ship’s of a Senate Investigation. The final Trust Indenture was disclosed pursuant to a FOIA request. Both means of disclosure satisfy § 3730(e)(4)(A) and thus require Atkinson to demonstrate original source status before proceeding with the suit. 30 Atkinson’s argument that this count is sustainable on the grounds that it is an action in furtherance of an underlying conspiracy or as part of the alleged Trust Indenture fraud is rendered moot by our decision that the District Court had no jurisdiction over those claims. 31 Atkinson did not amend his seventh count after it was dismissed from the Second Amended Complaint. Therefore, we will not review it here. 46 false assertion that the BAFO was not a deliberate underbid.32 Thus, the X element is Penn Ship’s assertion that its BAFO was a bona fide bid. The Y element is the fact that Penn Ship knew that the BAFO was unreasonably low and deliberately misstated project costs. We have already established that the BAFO was publicly disclosed within the meaning of § 3730(e)(4)(A) and that Atkinson is not an original source because Schorsch learned of it through the public disclosure. Stinson, 944 F.2d at 1160. Likewise, we find that the allegations and transactions constituting the Y element were publicly disclosed. The allegation that Penn Ship deliberately understated costs was publicly disclosed by way of the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the 1994 DoD IG Report. The allegation that Penn Ship never intended to perfect the security interests described in the Trust Indenture was publicly disclosed when the various versions of the Trust Indenture were produced following FOIA requests. Nor is Atkinson an original source of either the X or Y elements because his knowledge is based solely upon § 3730(e)(4)(A) public disclosures and information otherwise in the public domain. Stinson, 944 F.2d at 1160. Therefore, there 32 As discussed above, we will not entertain amendments to claims that the District Court did not dismiss from the Second Amended Complaint because Atkinson was not granted leave to amend and did not obtain the consent of the adverse parties. FED R. CIV. P. 15. 47 is no jurisdiction to hear these claims under § 3730(e)(4)(A).33