Shipbuilder With Shady Past Could Rake In $3.5 Billion For Icebreaker Contract

Many shipbuilding companies are bidding for billions of dollars in government contracts for the highly anticipated creation of military icebreakers, but one of these companies, Bollinger Shipyards, is competing despite its tainted history with the United States.

When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed on Independence Day, more than $8 billion was allocated for the production of up to three new heavy icebreakers, three medium polar icebreakers and 10 medium to light icebreaking vessels, according to High North News.

A Homeland Security press release from August called icebreakers “vital for America’s presence in the Arctic, an area increasingly contested by America’s adversaries due to its growing potential for oil and gas exploration, critical minerals, trade route traffic, fishing and tourism.” (RELATED: US Coast Guard Forgot How To Build Ships Necessary For Arctic Defense) 

The icebreaker research vessel Kronprins Haakon sails through the sea ice, in eastern Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, on April 6, 2025. The Norwegian Polar Institute, an Arctic research organisation, organised a five-week expedition aboard the high-tech research vessel and icebreaker Kronprins Haakon to collect adipose tissue biopsies and blood samples from polar bears in order to study the impact of pollutants on their health.(Photo by OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images)

As companies submit bids for the coveted contracts, Bollinger Shipyards has moved to secure a deal to construct three medium icebreakers. If successful, the company would receive $3.5 billion, according to Marine Insight.

Founded in 1946, Bollinger Shipyards has a longer history than many of its competitors, but with that comes a past riddled with government bailouts and scandals.

In 2022, Bollinger acquired shipbuilding company VT Halter Marine, taking over its $745 million contract that was awarded in 2019 to construct a heavy icebreaker for the U.S. Coast Guard, according to the Department of Defense.

Following the acquisition, though, Bollinger received another $951.6 million for a contract modification to complete the icebreaker, according to gCaptain. That means under Bollinger’s control, the price to create a single ship more than doubled the agreed-upon initial price. The ship has still not been completed.

Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards, called the contract modification “a herculean effort” that “underscores the incredible trust the U.S. government has placed in Bollinger.”

Bollinger has also maintained a rocky relationship with the U.S. government in the past. In 2015, the company settled a false claims lawsuit with the government for $8.5 million and released its contract claim, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement.

The U.S. alleged the company “misrepresented the longitudinal strength of patrol boats it delivered to the Coast Guard that resulted in the boats buckling and failing once they were put into service,” according to the statement. (RELATED: Trump Team Floated Energy Incentives With Russia In ‘Sideline’ Ukraine Peace Talks: REPORT) 

“Companies that make false statements to win Coast Guard contracts do a disservice to the men and women securing our borders,” Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice Tony West said at the announcement of the lawsuit.

Russian Emergencies Ministry officers conduct a training on the Soviet decommissioned nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin (now serves as a museum) in the Arctic Circle port city of Murmansk on March 25, 2025. (Photo by OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2025, Bollinger paid more than $1 million to settle another false claims accusation for “knowingly billing the U.S. Coast Guard for labor provided by workers who were not eligible to work in the United States,” according to the DOJ.

It was not the first time Bollinger had been accused of using illegal labor. A Fifth Circuit ruling in 2010 found that an illegal immigrant injured while working for Bollinger was entitled to workers’ compensation, according to Bloomberg Law.