by Ben Vernia | August 17th, 2011
On August 16, the Department of Justice announced that Taleo Corp., based in Dublin, California, had agreed to pay $6.49 million to settle claims initially brought by a whistleblower in a qui tam suit under the False Claims Act. According to DOJ’s press release:
Taleo Corp. has agreed to pay the United States $6.49 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly caused false claims to be submitted to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Justice Department announced today.
In 2002, CPS Human Resource Services contracted with TSA to perform human resource services. Taleo, which is based in Dublin, Calif., subcontracted with CPS to provide supporting software. Taleo’s subcontract stated that Taleo would charge its commercial list rates with certain discounts.
The United States alleged that Taleo’s commercial list rates were usually based on a customer’s actual number of employees, but that Taleo charged TSA a higher rate that was not based on the agency’s actual number of employees. If Taleo had followed the normal procedure, the rate TSA was charged would have been lower.
The government did not announce the amount of the relator’s share in the case.
