HP Pays Out £30 Million To Department Of Justice
HP, Sun and Accenture were named in a suit joined by the DOJ in 2007 alleging kickbacks for favourable treatment in government contracts
Hewlett-Packard reportedly will pay about $50 million (£31.4m) to settle a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice over alleged kickbacks in connection with government IT contracts.
HP announced a settlement in principle Aug. 2 that would reduce the company’s third quarter profits by 2 cents share. The agreement still needs to be approved by the DOJ, other government agencies and a U.S. District Court in Arkansas.
Favourable Treatment
According to the DOJ, HP paid $3 million to system integrators between 2001 and 2006 in hopes of getting favourable treatment in government contracts.
Whistleblower lawsuits, filed by officials with Accenture and PricewaterhouseCoopers, initially were filed in 2004 against Accenture, HP and Sun Microsystems for allegedly soliciting payments or making those payments for governmental technology contracts.
The DOJ joined the lawsuit against the three companies in 2007. In their statement, HP officials denied any wrongdoing.
