The U.S. Department of Justice threw its weight behind a whistleblower lawsuit against HP, Sun and Accenture, alleging that the companies violated federal claims laws by improperly charging government agencies for several years' worth of technology contracts.
In documents filed on April 12 and unsealed Thursday, the DOJ alleges that H-P, Sun and Accenture each "solicited and provided improper payments and other things of value," on technology contracts with several U.S. government departments and agencies from the late 1990s to the present.
H-P, Sun and Accenture are charged with making false claims to the U.S. government for work done involving information technology hardware and services contracts. In a statement, the DOJ said it believes that the tech giants engaged in kickbacks and undisclosed conflict-of-interest relationships with other companies with whom they worked on the government contracts. "The defendants have systematically solicited and/or made payments of money and other things of value, known as 'alliance benefits,' to a number of companies with whom they had global 'alliance relationships' or an agreement to work together," the DOJ said, in a statement.
The suit was originally filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, Ark., by plaintiffs Norman Rille and Neal Roberts, and under the whistleblower provisions of the U.S. False Claims Act. That act says that a private party can file an action on behalf of the U.S. and receive a portion of any fees recovered in the case. The act also said the U.S. may recover three times the amount of its losses, plus civil penalties, in the case.
H-P released a statement denying the charges and saying it is confident it engaged in appropriate business practices with the government. "We plan to vigorously defend this action and look forward to demonstrating that HP has done nothing wrong," H-P said.
