Boeing allegedly defrauded the government by overcharging nearly 8,000% for soap dispensers

Boeing (B.A) has no problems with money laundering, but the US military accuses the aircraft manufacturer of some ridiculous tax scandal related to cleaning products. Audit issued by the Department of Defense on Tuesday found that the company overcharged the government for spare soap dispensers on C-17 cargo planes.

“The Air Force did not always pay reasonable prices for C-17 replacement parts as required by the federal acquisition order, such as the toilet soap dispenser, which represented a markup of 7,943%, or more than 80 times the commercially available price.” the report says.

Auditors looked at soap dispensers in the C-17 maintenance contract, which was valued at $35.6 billion between initial and additional terms beginning in 2011 and extending through 2031. Under the contract, the Defense Department will reimburse Boeing for spare parts .

The audit looked specifically at the reimbursement rates for 46 different spare parts. It was established that:

• The government paid a “fair and reasonable” $20 million for nine of them

• The government was unable to determine whether it paid a “fair and reasonable” $22 million for the 25 of them

• For 9 of them, the government paid an unfair and unreasonable amount of $4.3 million

“Fair and reasonable” in this case meant a margin of 25%. Regarding the soap dispensers specifically, the government did not say how many it purchased, but said it overpaid $150,000 for them compared to market prices.

Boeing says it is still reviewing the report.

“We are reviewing a report that appears to be based on an inappropriate comparison of prices paid for parts that meet aircraft and contract specifications and designs with core commercial products that would not be qualified or approved for use on the C-17,” he added. – the company said in a statement provided to Quartz. “We will continue to work with the OIG and the U.S. Air Force to provide a detailed written response to the report in the coming days.”

This isn’t the first time this year that a Boeing audit has found soap. When the Federal Aviation Administration he glanced In the company’s manufacturing processes, after a door plug exploded on a 737 Max 9 commercial airliner, it was found that contractors used dish detergent to lubricate parts during assembly.

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