WHAT: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a six-count Complaint against a federal contractor, Intelligent Fiscal Optimal Solutions, LLC (iFOS), in the District of Maryland, alleging three violations of the Civil False Claims Act (FCA) as well as counts for breach of contract, payment by mistake, and unjust enrichment. As alleged, the core predicate misconduct for the FCA counts involved an elaborate iFOS plan to conceal from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the fact that it had engaged a former senior DHS official, as a subcontractor/consultant, who was then subject to a one year “cooling off” ban on agency communications, and had permitted the official to violate that communications ban. iFOS allegedly carried out the subterfuge by, among other things, billing DHS for the time worked by the former official while attributing the time and charge to an iFOS employee.
The communications ban stems from a criminal statute, the Ethics in Government Act (EGA), 18 U.S.C. § 207(c), which prohibits certain senior personnel from trying to influence their former agencies about official matters for a period of one year from the end of their federal employment. Thus the popular sobriquet of the ban as a “cooling off” period to prevent actual or apparent impropriety from influence peddling.
WHEN: DOJ filed the complaint on May 2, 2022.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INDUSTRY: In the Complaint, DOJ marshaled an extensive record of text messages and phone calls between the...
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