DOJ joins suit against big corporate scam
The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, allege that the three companies submitted false claims to the U.S. government on "numerous" government contracts since the late 1990s. The lawsuits, originally filed by Accenture employee Norman Rille and another whistleblower, accuse the companies of creating alliance relationships with dozens of other vendors, giving each other discounts or rebates on products or work for government contracts. The companies did not pass the rebates on to their government clients, according to a DOJ court filing.
"Millions of dollars of kickbacks were sought, received, offered and paid" among the three companies and other technology partners, the DOJ said in a court filing made public Thursday. Any rebates vendors receive as part of a U.S. government contract belong to the government, the DOJ said.
It isn't quite clear how this scam worked from the short article. But I get the impression what happened is a company with a government contract would subcontract out part of it at a discounted rate but charge the government the full rate. The extra money was then split with the subcontractor to keep them quiet.
Jay