The consulting agency Booz Allen Hamilton has agreed to pay $377.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit that accused it of falsely billing the U.S. authorities, the Justice Department mentioned on Friday.
The settlement resolves allegations that between 2011 and 2021, Booz Allen improperly charged the federal government for oblique prices that it ought to have billed underneath its business and worldwide contracts, the Justice Department mentioned in a news launch. The authorities had alleged that the agency “obtained reimbursement from the government for the costs of commercial activities that provided no benefit to the United States.”
A consulting agency’s oblique prices can embrace bills like gear, advertising and marketing and workplace house.
Booz Allen, which relies in McLean, Va., has profitable protection and intelligence contracts with the federal authorities. Investigators started reviewing the agency’s billing practices in 2016.
“Government contractors must turn square corners when billing the government for costs under government contracts,” Brian M. Boynton, principal deputy assistant lawyer and head of the Justice Department’s civil division, mentioned in an announcement.
Matthew M. Graves, U.S. lawyer for the District of Columbia, mentioned within the news launch that the settlement was “one of the largest procurement fraud settlements in history.”
A spokeswoman for Booz Allen mentioned in an announcement on Friday that the corporate believed it had acted “lawfully and responsibly.”
“It decided to settle this civil inquiry for pragmatic business reasons to avoid the delay, uncertainty and expense of protracted litigation,” the spokeswoman mentioned. “The company did not want to engage in what likely would have been a yearslong court fight with its largest client, the U.S. government, on an immensely complex matter.”
A parallel prison investigation into the allegations by the Justice Department was closed in 2021 with no fees. An investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission is continuous.
Source: www.nytimes.com