Virginia-Based Defense Contractor to Pay $400,000 to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Under Civil Settlement with United States

The Informatics Applications Group, Inc. (TIAG) a Defense contractor based in Reston, VA, will pay $400,000 under a civil settlement with the United States Department of Justice, announced Acting United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr.  The settlement resolves allegations that TIAG submitted false claims to the government in violation of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-3733, as well as certain other claims.

The claims submitted by TIAG were for services rendered under an Army contract for information technology services at the United States Army Medical Information Technology Center, Joint Base San Antonio – Fort Sam Houston.  Pursuant to the contract, TIAG employees were provided access to USAMITC, its network, computers and other resources solely for purposes of performing work on USAMITC Information Technology systems.

The United States contends that, beginning in June 2012 and continuing through September 2012, during its performance of the USAMITC contract, certain TIAG employees utilized the USAMITC network for prohibited purposes, including to access information that they deemed to be useful to TIAG’s efforts to obtain other government contracts.  The TIAG employees searched for and obtained multiple documents from the USAMITC network, including documents restricted to those with Privileged Access.  The United States contends that these documents were sought for, and were used in, preparing TIAG proposals for three government Requests for Proposals, however, TIAG did not win any of those contracts.  The United States contends that TIAG’s conduct placed it in default under the contract, yet it knowingly submitted false claims for payment under the contract.

The settlement agreement is not an admission of liability by TIAG.

Acting United States Attorney Durbin commended the efforts of the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division -- Major Procurement Fraud Unit which investigated the case.  Assistant United States Attorney Susan Strawn handled the investigation for the Government.