Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls repays $9.2M to US government

One of the nation's largest military shipyards is paying $9.2 million back to the federal government in an overbilling settlement.

The U.S. Justice Department announced the settlement Tuesday with Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII). The Newport News, Virginia, company operates the 10,000-employee Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi.

The settlement resolves allegations that Huntington Ingalls charged labor costs to contracts for which work wasn't actually done, and charged the government as if supervisors had dived to work on ship hulls, or even for dives that never happened. The charges were made to U.S. Navy and Coast Guard contracts.

More from FOX Business

North Korean threat sparks demand for missile defense

Nuclear weapons: These companies manage America's stockpile

North Korean threats lift defense stocks

Gun sales in post-election lull, but 'not all gloom and doom': Ruger

Pentagon may buy idle Boeing jets after Trump's call for Air Force One cuts

The allegations were originally brought on behalf of the government by a former Huntington Ingalls employee named Byron Faulkner. Under federal law, he'll get $1.6 million.

Federal prosecutors say problems ran from 2003 to 2015.