https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/vancouver-wa-laser-technology-firm-settles-civil-claims-it-improperly-received

If I had to guess based on the timing and the above link, POET (then OPEL) qualified for the SBIRs they got before they went public in 2007.  Since, ODIS is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of POET, the year after they RTO's Tandem Resources, they possibly became more than 51% owned by other entities - the shareholders of POET.

At the time, the shareholder base may have been mostly composed of venture capital firms and agents of the parent company itself, OPEL, as opposed to individual shareholders. This would put them in jeopardy of breaking the rules when they had previously qualified.  They just never told the SBIR office that their company structure had changed post -RTO.

It's too bad that the term "False Claims" is being used here when POET is still struggling to be taken seriously pending their first integrated prototype/product.  It's definitely not a false claim about POET's technology, but of the corporate structure at the time the SBIR was sought.