Anyone ever work for a government contractor?

I know I come on here and whine about my problems a lot, but I was wondering if anyone might have some insight into the type of situation in which my brother currently finds himself.
Until about a month ago, he was an engineer who worked for a company that did business with the government. He worked there for 18 years and had a solid track record with the company. Then he was fired.
The reason he was fired was that he signed the time card of a contractor who put the wrong code for a job he did on the card. It seems to me like an honest mistake and knowing my brother I'm certain it was, but apparently this code thing is a big deal with the government and what he did was considered willfully participating in fraud and thus a one-strike-and-you're-out kind of thing.
The code issue is complex enough that there are classes about it, but none were available to him.
His claim for unemployment was denied. I hope there is a hearing where he would be able to explain his side of the story. Of course it seems to me he should have been able to do that before he was let go.
It seems like a petty reason to fire somebody, but obviously I don't know a lot about that business. Does anyone here know anything about this stuff?

 

Seems to me there are degrees of government contractors. An uncle of mine, who paves roads for a living, did numerous contracts with Uncle Sugar as well as local and state ones.

And I worked for one for about nine months overseas. Typical lowest-bidder deal with a wage to match, but I've gone on to (slightly) bigger and better things.