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Air Force Award Downed by Inadequate OCI Assessment

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 09.15.16

In AT&T Gov’t Solutions, Inc. (released Sept. 12, 2016), in which C&M represented AT&T, GAO sustained the protest of the Air Force’s award for computer network operations and cyberspace warfare operations. GAO determined that the Air Force had failed to reasonably evaluate whether the awardee had adequately avoided or mitigated unequal access to competitively sensitive information to which the awardee had access through its subcontractor that had provided acquisition support for the program and that the Air Force award decision was also premised on flawed past performance evaluations.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 04.14.26

DOJ’s False Claims Act Resolution Against IBM Signals Heightened Risk for Federal Contractors with DEI Programs

On Friday, April 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has agreed to pay just over $17 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with federal anti-discrimination requirements incorporated into its federal contracts due to allegedly discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employment practices. This resolution marks the first FCA settlement secured by the DOJ under its Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, created in May 2025, and announced by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as part of the administration’s coordinated efforts to target allegedly unlawful DEI practices. Per the agreement, the settlement is neither an admission of liability by IBM nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded....