Accenture Settles Rille Qui Tam Suit with US DOJ for $63.675 Million

MR - Accenture has agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a whistle-blower suit filed in 2006 for $63.675 million. The Qi Tam lawsuit was originally filed by Rille and Roberts alleging that Accenture submitted false claims for payment under contracts with US federal agencies for IT consulting and services. The Justice Department characterizes the settlement as Accenture agreeing to resolve the claims that it received kickbacks for recommendations of hardware and software to the government, fraudulently inflating prices and rigging bids. Accenture continues to vigorously deny the allegations and says that the firm and the Justice Department have settled only to avoid the additional time, inconvenience and expense that would come with protracted litigation. The Accenture kickback allegations were part of a larger investigation of government technology vendors that has resulted in numerous settlements to date with firms that include IBM, PwC, CSC, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, and Cisco. The total of the settlements paid by IBM, PwC, and CSC were around $6.5 million. That aggregated total was just a fraction of that paid by each of the firms that waited to settle. So there was clearly a significant premium charged to Accenture and the other firms that refused to address the risk early. Accenture's settlement, as well as that of Oracle, were in the range predicted by Monadnock Research in a September 2010 publication. This Research Note includes MR analysis and perspective on: the cost to firms of waiting to settle; why clients need to better understand firm partnerships, since acting in the client's best interest is often not in the firm's best interest; related case settlements and supporting documents, including complaints; and recommendations on what clients and firms should do to mitigate associated risk. (2 graphics, 1,950 words) . . . (to read the remainder of this article, please log in below.)