On Monday, August 12, 2011, the US Department of Justice announced that Accenture, LLP has agreed to pay about 63.68 million dollars to the United States government to settle allegations brought against the company under the False Claims Act. Accenture is a unit of a global technology consulting firm based in Dublin.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, alleges that Accenture submitted or caused to be submitted false claims for payment under multiple contracts with US Agencies for IT services. Additionally, the lawsuit claims that the company received kickbacks for its recommendations of hardware and software to the government, fraudulently inflated prices, and rigged bids in connection with federal information technology contracts.
The qui tam lawsuit was originally filed under the False Claims Act in 2004 by two whistleblowers: Norman Rille and Neal Roberts. The US government intervened in the case in 2007. Although the portion of the proceeds of the settlement to go to the whistleblowers has not yet been determined, under the False Claims Act whistleblowers are entitled to a 15-25% share of the settlement.