W.R. Grace, Baker & Taylor Settle Suit

W.R. Grace & Co. and a former subsidiary agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle allegations they overcharged schools, libraries and the government for books over more than a decade beginning in the early 1980s, the Justice Department said. A lawsuit was originally brought by two private whistle-blowers and later taken over by the federal government and 18 states, including California. The suit alleged that Grace and Baker & Taylor Inc., a national book distributor that was a division of Grace until 1993, defrauded the United States in direct book purchases and indirectly by overcharging local schools and libraries that bought books with federal grant money. Grace agreed to pay the federal government $3 million to resolve the claims against it, and Grace and Baker & Taylor jointly agreed to pay $12.5 million to the 18 states.