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DoD's Proposed Counterfeit Electronic Parts Rules Are Short on Details

Client Alert | 1 min read | 05.22.13

Following up on its publication of an instruction on counterfeit parts on May 16, DoD issued a long-expected proposed rule on counterfeit electronic parts avoidance, detection, and liability, with comments due by July 15. As discussed on our blog, the rule -- which applies only to CAS-covered prime contractors but will have a much broader impact on subcontractors and suppliers -- requires that business systems include DoD-approved avoidance and detection systems, but leaves the details of the newly required systems to be fleshed out, it would seem, by DCAA and/or DCMA, and, while it imposes potentially unlimited liability for counterfeit parts, it has an exceedingly narrow "safe harbor." 


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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....