GE pleaded innocent to defrauding the Pentagon.

General Electric, the nation’s fourth-largest defense contractor, pleaded innocent to 108 counts of making false expense claims on a $47-million Minuteman nuclear warhead contract. The Pentagon alleges that GE padded its expenses by $800,000 and has suspended all business with the firm. Also entering innocent pleas in federal court in Philadelphia were Joseph Calabria, a chief engineer for GE, and Roy Baessler, a former GE manager who supervised the Minuteman project. U.S. District Judge Louis Bechtle set a May 13 trial date.