Technology Integration Group (TIG) will pay $5.9 million to the U.S. government in a civil settlement following claims “that the company inflated the price of computers sold through another company to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for use at Sandia National Laboratories,” the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week. The claims against TIG were raised under False Claims Act whistleblower provisions, the announcement says.
The announcement says that over the course of a decade ending in 2013, “TIG sold Dell computers to Sandia Corporation for resale to the United States under Sandia’s contract with the NNSA” and “knowingly inflated the amounts it charged Sandia by failing to give credits for rebates and discounts it received from Dell as required by its contract and causing false claims to the government for the inflated prices.” The settlement comes on the heels of an April 2015 non-prosecution agreement between TIG and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico after three TIG employees allegedly “engaged in a scheme to defraud the United States by inflating the amounts it charged Sandia for computers,” the announcement says. In this instance, TIG was required to “terminate the employment of the three employees in its Albuquerque branch office” and “retain and pay for an independent monitor selected by the U.S. Attorney’s Office” to monitor its compliance with the agreement, it adds.