On September 14, 2026, the Department of Justice announced that Accenture Federal Services, Accenture plc, and Accenture LLP agreed to pay $25 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that AFS certified compliance with the equal opportunity requirements in its federal contracts while using race and sex in hiring, promotion, and access to professional development programs. It is the third DEI-related FCA settlement DOJ has announced this year, following IBM ($17.1 million, April 10) and Deloitte ($21.5 million, August 25), and the largest so far. Total recoveries in five months: roughly $63.5 million.
We covered the IBM settlement in April as the first proof that the FCA theory works. Accenture confirms it was not a one-off. All three resolutions rest on the same theory, describe nearly identical conduct, and reach back to January 1, 2017. For Alaska Native Corporations, tribal enterprises, and Native Hawaiian Organizations holding federal contracts, the pattern is now clear enough to plan around.
The settlement agreement, signed for the government by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, describes three categories of “Covered Conduct” by Accenture Federal Services (AFS) spanning January 1, 2017 through the effective date:
On September 14, 2026, the Department of Justice announced that Accenture Federal Services, Accenture plc, and Accenture LLP agreed to pay $25 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that ...