KBR Lawsuits: HomeSafe, False Claims Act, and Nigeria Bribery

KBR, Inc., the Houston-based government services and engineering company formerly owned by Halliburton, has been sued repeatedly over the past two decades. The major KBR lawsuits include a 2025 securities fraud class action tied to the collapse of a multibillion-dollar Defense Department moving contract, a $108.75 million False Claims Act settlement in 2023 over Iraq War overbilling, the $579 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resolution in 2009 for bribing Nigerian officials, veteran toxic exposure suits over burn pits and hexavalent chromium, a wrongful death case brought by the mother of an electrocuted soldier, a human trafficking suit by Nepali workers, and Jamie Leigh Jones’s sexual assault case, which prompted Congress to restrict arbitration clauses at defense contractors. Below is a rundown of each.

2025 Securities Class Action Over the HomeSafe Contract

Investors sued KBR in the summer of 2025 after its stock fell on news that the Pentagon had terminated a contract managed by KBR’s HomeSafe Alliance joint venture. The case, Norrman v. KBR, Inc., et al., No. 4:25-cv-04464, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and names CEO Stuart J.B. Bradie and CFO Mark W. Sopp as defendants.¹

On the May 6, 2025 first-quarter earnings call, executives described HomeSafe as “strong” and “excellent” and said they were “very confident in the future of this program.” The complaint alleges those statements were materially misleading because the U.S. Transportation Command had already flagged serious concerns about HomeSafe’s ability to perform, including chronic delays, missed pickups, and complaints about damaged household goods.²

On June 18, 2025, the Department of Defense terminated the Global Household Goods contract for cause, citing HomeSafe’s “demonstrated inability to fulfill their obligations and deliver high quality moves to Service members.” The contract had been valued at up to $20 billion over a potential nine-year term. KBR shares dropped 7.3%, closing at $48.93 on June 20.³

The class period runs from May 6 to June 19, 2025, with a lead plaintiff deadline of November 18, 2025.¹ When KBR reported second-quarter results on July 31, 2025, it cut the low end of its 2025 revenue guidance by roughly $900 million to account for the lost HomeSafe revenue, and management acknowledged “there were operational challenges.”⁴ The case remains in its early stages.

WARN Act Class Action Over HomeSafe Layoffs

The termination also spawned a labor lawsuit. On June 30, 2025, Berger Montague filed Sadler v. KBR, Inc. et al., No. 1:25-cv-00802, in Delaware, alleging that KBR and HomeSafe Alliance laid off more than 200 employees in late June 2025 without providing the 60-day advance notice required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.⁵⁶ The suit seeks up to 60 days of back wages and benefits for affected workers.

$108.75 Million False Claims Act Settlement (2023)

In July 2023, KBR agreed to pay $108.75 million to settle USA ex rel. Howard v. KBR, Inc. et al., a whistleblower suit originally filed in 2011 and unsealed in 2014. It alleged that KBR routinely charged the Army for unnecessary materials under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP III) contract, focused on materials handling, equipment procurement, and inventory management in Iraq between 2007 and 2011.⁷⁸ About half the total was restitution, and $34.95 million went to the whistleblowers’ attorneys. KBR denied liability or wrongful conduct.

$13.67 Million Kickback Settlement (2022)

A year earlier, in June 2022, KBR settled a separate False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Act case for $13.67 million. In United States ex rel. Conyers v. Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., No. 4:06-cv-04024 (S.D. Tex.), the government alleged that KBR employees rigged bidding on LOGCAP III subcontracts to favor certain companies in exchange for kickbacks, then billed the Army for inflated costs and falsified documentation. The DOJ also noted a separate $51 million judgment against KBR finalized in 2021 after a trial before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals concerning a different Iraq-theater subcontract.⁹

The broader LOGCAP overbilling picture stretches back further. The Defense Contract Audit Agency identified over $200 million in overcharges by Halliburton for fuel imports and oil field repairs, and congressional hearings documented allegations that KBR charged the Pentagon for “thousands of meals that were not actually served,” provided contaminated, non-potable water to troops, and could not account for over a third of government property in its custody. In February 2004, the Pentagon’s Inspector General launched a criminal investigation into potential fuel overcharges on imports from Kuwait to Iraq.¹⁰¹¹

$579 Million Nigeria Bribery Resolution

KBR’s largest legal event was a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resolution announced on February 11, 2009. Starting in 1994, a joint venture that included predecessors of Kellogg Brown & Root paid over $180 million in bribes to Nigerian government officials through sham contracts with agents in the United Kingdom and Japan, all to secure construction contracts worth more than $6 billion for a liquefied natural gas project.¹²

The scheme ran for roughly a decade and was managed internally through what officials described as a “cultural committee.” It unraveled after former KBR president and CEO Albert “Jack” Stanley pleaded guilty in September 2008 to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Stanley was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay approximately $11 million in restitution, at the time the most severe sentence ever imposed on an individual for FCPA violations.¹³

The combined DOJ and SEC resolution totaled $579 million. Kellogg Brown & Root LLC pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and four counts of violating the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions and paid a $402 million criminal fine, while KBR and Halliburton jointly paid $177 million in disgorgement to the SEC. It was the largest combined FCPA penalty at that time. KBR was required to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years, and Halliburton had to appoint an independent consultant to review its anti-corruption policies.¹²

2018 SEC Accounting Penalty

In July 2018, the SEC ordered KBR to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty for accounting deficiencies tied to Canadian contracts. The SEC found that in the second quarter of 2012, KBR improperly included $459 million in its disclosed “work in backlog” for a Canadian contract despite lacking valid firm orders, and the inflated figure persisted for nearly two years. KBR also failed to accurately estimate costs on seven Canadian contracts, which ultimately forced a restatement of fiscal year 2013 earnings and charges totaling $156 million. KBR settled without admitting or denying the findings.¹⁴

Burn Pit Litigation by Veterans

Hundreds of veterans sued KBR and Halliburton over health problems they attributed to open-air burn pits on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Operating under military contracts, KBR burned waste including tires, batteries, medical waste, and human waste. Veterans reported lung disease and other chronic conditions, and more than 160,000 registered with the VA’s burn pit registry. The VA estimated 3.7 million veterans and service members had been exposed to burn pit fumes.¹⁵¹⁶

The consolidated multi-district litigation, In re: KBR, Inc., Burn Pit Litigation (Master Case No. 8:09-md-2083-RWT), was heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. KBR’s central defense was that it operated under military control and that the decision to use burn pits was a military one, raising the “political question” doctrine. The district court dismissed the case, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed, finding the suits could not proceed because the use of burn pits was a political question for the executive and legislative branches. On January 15, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the veterans’ appeal, ending the decade-long litigation. The courts never reached whether the burn pits actually caused the veterans’ illnesses.¹⁷¹⁵

Hexavalent Chromium Exposure at Qarmat Ali

A separate line of toxic exposure cases involved soldiers who guarded a water treatment plant at Qarmat Ali, Iraq, in 2003 while KBR rehabilitated the facility. The soldiers were exposed to sodium dichromate, a compound containing the known carcinogen hexavalent chromium. Plaintiffs alleged that after soldiers reported severe nosebleeds, breathing difficulty, and debilitating headaches, KBR misrepresented the substance as a “mild irritant.”¹⁸

In Rocky Bixby, et al., v. KBR, Inc., et al., a federal jury in Oregon found that KBR acted with “reckless and outrageous indifference” to the soldiers’ health and awarded 12 Oregon National Guard members $85 million.¹⁸ The verdict was overturned in 2015 when the Ninth Circuit ruled the Oregon court lacked personal jurisdiction over KBR.¹⁹ The parallel Indiana case, McManaway, et al. v. KBR, Inc., et al., brought by 166 plaintiffs, also failed. In March 2017, the Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for KBR, finding that the plaintiffs’ epidemiological evidence did not meet the threshold to establish that chromium exposure caused their illnesses.²⁰

Ryan Maseth Electrocution Wrongful Death Suit

One of the most publicized cases against KBR involved the January 2008 death of Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, who was electrocuted while showering at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad. A Department of Defense Inspector General investigation found KBR had installed an ungrounded water pump and adjacent water tanks on the building’s roof in June 2006, creating the conditions for the fatal shock. KBR personnel had identified improperly grounded equipment during routine maintenance beginning in February 2006 but failed to report or correct the problems. The Inspector General cited KBR’s lack of standard procedures for electrical inspections, incomplete facility records, and “inadequate electrical training and expertise” among its personnel.²¹ The investigation expanded to examine 17 other electrocution deaths of military personnel and contractors in Iraq since 2003.²²

Maseth’s mother, Cheryl Harris, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR and Halliburton. In January 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the companies to have the case dismissed, allowing it to proceed toward trial.²³

Adhikari Human Trafficking Case

In Adhikari v. KBR Inc., a group of Nepali men and surviving family members of deceased workers alleged that they were recruited in Nepal in 2004 with promises of hotel jobs in Jordan. On arrival, their passports were confiscated and they were forcibly transported to Al Asad, a U.S. military base in Iraq, where they were held against their will and forced to perform mess hall and cleaning work for more than a year. Twelve of the men were killed by insurgents.²⁴

The district court found sufficient evidence that KBR had authority over the recruitment of foreign workers and knew they “had been promised jobs elsewhere and transported against their will to Iraq.” The case was ultimately defeated on jurisdictional grounds. In January 2017, the Fifth Circuit held that because the alleged conduct occurred entirely outside the United States, the Alien Tort Statute did not provide jurisdiction, applying the Supreme Court’s presumption against extraterritorial application of U.S. law from Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. The ruling created a split with the Fourth Circuit, which had allowed similar claims against a different defense contractor to proceed.²⁵

Jamie Leigh Jones Case and the Franken Amendment

In 2005, KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones alleged that four days into her assignment in Iraq, she was drugged and gang-raped by fellow contractors and then imprisoned in a shipping container after reporting the incident. Jones filed suit in 2007, and KBR sought to force the dispute into mandatory arbitration under her employment contract. Her fight over that clause became a rallying point for critics of forced arbitration in employment.²⁶

In 2009, the Fifth Circuit ruled that Jones could bypass arbitration and pursue her case in court. That same year, Senator Al Franken introduced what became known as the Franken Amendment, enacted as Section 8116 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010. It prohibited defense contractors and subcontractors with contracts over $1 million from enforcing mandatory arbitration clauses for claims involving sexual assault, sexual harassment, and related torts under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.¹⁴

Jones’s civil case went to trial in June 2011 in Houston federal court. Army lab tests of samples collected after the incident found no Rohypnol or other date-rape drugs, there was no physical evidence or witness testimony supporting the claim of multiple attackers, and an EEOC investigation supported KBR’s position that Jones was not imprisoned.²⁶ On July 8, 2011, the jury ruled against Jones, finding that she was not raped and that KBR did not commit fraud. The judge later ordered Jones to pay $145,000 in court costs to KBR but declined to award attorney fees, ruling the suit was not frivolous.²⁷

1
Levi & Korsinsky, LLP. KBR, Inc. Securities Class Action Lawsuit Filed
2
PR Newswire. KBR, Inc. Faces Securities Class Action Amid TRANSCOM Contract Termination
3
BusinessWire. KBR, Inc. Investors Who Lost Money Contact Law Offices of Howard G. Smith
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Newsfile Corp. KBR, Inc. Cuts 2025 Revenue Due to TRANSCOM Termination
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Berger Montague. KBR, Inc. HomeSafe Alliance
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Law360. HomeSafe Layoffs After Lost DoD Contract Spur Suit
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KBR, Inc. KBR Successfully Settles Legacy Legal Matter
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Law360. KBR Reaches $109M Settlement in Iraq War FCA Case
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U.S. Department of Justice. KBR Defendants Agree to Settle Kickback and False Claims Allegations
10
GovInfo. Senate Hearing on Iraq Reconstruction Contracting
11
Center for Public Integrity. Documents Reveal Concern Regarding Halliburton Contracts
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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC v. Halliburton Company and KBR, Inc., Litigation Release No. 20897A
13
Dechert LLP. KBR and Halliburton Resolve FCPA Investigation
14
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Charges KBR With Inflating Backlog and Deficient Accounting
15
NPR. Veterans Claiming Illness From Burn Pits Lose Court Fight
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Military Times. Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From Veterans in Burn Pit Lawsuit Against KBR, Halliburton
17
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. In Re KBR, Inc., Burn Pit Litigation, Memorandum Opinion
18
The Indiana Lawyer. Oregon Verdict May Have Impact on Indiana Guardsmen’s KBR Suits
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Bloomberg Law. Oregon Vets Regroup After KBR Wins Appeal, $85 Million Verdict Tossed in Iraq War Suit
20
Susman Godfrey LLP. KBR Wins in the Fifth Circuit, Defeats Plaintiffs’ Iraq War Toxic Tort Lawsuit
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Department of Defense Inspector General. Investigation of Electrocution of Staff Sergeant Ryan D. Maseth
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Defense Technical Information Center. DoD IG Report on Electrocution Deaths in Iraq
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Project on Government Oversight. Supreme Court Strikes Out KBR
24
Cohen Milstein. Adhikari v. KBR Inc. (Adhikari I and II)
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Boston College Law Review. Adhikari v. Kellogg Brown and Root, Inc., 845 F.3d 184
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Mother Jones. KBR Could Win Jamie Leigh Jones Rape Trial
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ABC News. Jamie Leigh Jones Ordered to Pay $145,000 to Contractor KBR