United States Attorney Andrew Birge announced today that Metna Co., a Lansing-based research and development firm, paid $500,000 to resolve allegations that the company violated the federal False Claims Act by concealing its use of underpaid foreign graduate students-students, the government alleged, who were ineligible to work at Metna under their visa restrictions-to obtain Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") contracts from the United States Army. Metna and its president also voluntarily agreed to two-year, government-wide exclusions from federal contracting and financial assistance.