(FORTUNE Magazine) – After loudly proclaiming innocence, General Electric, the sixth-largest U.S. defense contractor, suddenly reversed itself and pleaded guilty to falsely billing the Air Force $800,000 on a Minuteman missile contract. The company was fined $1.04 million for a fraud in which GE managers falsified employee time cards to jack up costs. GE, which derived 16% of its $28 billion in sales last year from military contracts, conceded all 108 counts of the indictment on the day the case was to go to trial. The company made its decision after a former GE manager who admitted his role in the fraud accused his superiors of being involved in the scheme. GE now faces a civil suit on the false Minuteman billings and could pay another $1.6 million in damages. Recently the company agreed to pay the government $1 million to settle a civil case involving alleged false billings on a satellite contract. GE is also being investigated for filing false claims on an aircraft engine contract for the Air Force. The GE case is the latest development in the government's highly publicized campaign against fraud in military contracts. The House Armed Services Committee recently announced that an audit of $4.3 billion in billings by seven defense contractors over one year uncovered $110 million in questionable claims -- including a $12,333 bill to the government for two season tickets to the Inglewood, California, Forum.