Office Depot to Pay $68.5M Settlement for Overcharging

Office Depot has been ruled by court to pay $68.5 million settlement to 1,000 California public agencies and the estate of whistle-blower David Sherwin, according to South Florida Business Journal.

David Sherwin, a former Office Depot account manager who died of cancer last year, filed a lawsuit on behalf of more than 1,000 California state agencies in 2009 against the office supplies retail giant Office Depot.The plaintiff alleged that Office Depot violated the California False Claims Act by overcharging public agencies for office and classroom supplies from 2001 to 2011.

Altomease R. Kennedy, an attorney at Washington, D.C.-based Sanford Heisler Kimpel LLP, claimed, “I always found David Sherwin’s assertions compelling, and was confident this matter would ultimately come to a fair and just conclusion, as it now has. His suit called attention to and halted egregious corporate behaviors costing taxpayers millions of dollars. I am sorry David isn’t here to witness this very positive outcome.”

Boca Raton-based Office Depot told investors last year that the settlement would be approximately $80 million and it defied the settlement as an admission of wrongdoing.

The California public agencies are not the only party prevailed in the complaint, back in 2010 Office Depot reached a $4.5 million settlement with Florida. So far, Office Depot still faces the complaints alleging it should refund more than $13 million overcharge fee to Texas, Arizona, Missouri and New York.

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