One of the many types of fraud and false claims that whistleblowers can report to whistleblower attorneys is unlawful “kickbacks” paid by companies that do business with the federal government.
The Justice Department has announced a settlement with IBM and PriceWaterhouseCoopers for more than $5.2 million, to resolve allegations that these firms violated the False Claims Act through business arrangements that allegedly constituted unlawful kickbacks. The announcement followed a whistleblower suit under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, which we have explained on this whistleblower lawyer blog previously.
According to the government, it investigated IBM and PWC as part of an ongoing investigation of government technology vendors and consultants. Other complaints have been filed in April 2007 in Arkansas against Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems, according to the Justice Department.
We congratulate the agencies involved in securing this victory for taxpayers: the Justice Department’s Civil Division; the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Little Rock, Ark.; the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General (OIG); ; the Defense Criminal Investigative Service; the General Services Administration Office of the Inspector GeneralNASA Office of the Inspector General; the Army Criminal Investigation Command; the Defense Contract Audit Agency; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of the Inspector General; the Postal Service Office of the Inspector General; the Navy Criminal Investigative Service; and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.