Even the U.S. federal government sometimes has trouble buying American products. The Department of Defense contracted for its agencies to buy American-made materials or materials manufactured in specified allied countries, such as South Korea. But now, through a settlement, two companies will jointly pay $904,000 to the federal government to resolve allegations that they provided the Department of Defense with shipping containers made in China and/or made from Chinese steel, in violation of the False Claims Act. In a joint contract, the companies, SoNo International LLC and Ark Capital Equipment LLC allegedly had a third-party company change the identifying plates on 100 shipping containers made in China to make them appear as if they were made in South Korea. In other contracts, SoNo’s supplier used Chinese steel, and SoNo and Ark allegedly failed to detect the deception before providing the United States military those containers, according to a statement from …