GSA "Invites" Schedule Contractors To Examine Origin Of Offered Products
Client Alert | 1 min read | 02.15.06
On February 10, 2006, DOJ announced a $5.02 million settlement with Corporate Express, bringing to $28+ million the total obtained from defendants in U.S. ex rel Safini Office Products v. Office Depot et al . (D.D.C. No. 03-CV-003), a qui tam case involving allegations that the defendants had sold office products from non-designated countries on the GSA Schedule in violation of the Trade Agreements Act certification in the contracts. Also within the past week, in a development showing that all schedule contractors should be aware that TAA compliance has a become a major issue in GSA audits, GSA schedule contractors for office products began receiving a letter from GSA asking them to perform a self-assessment of the products they offered and to remove those items from countries that are not "designated countries" under the Trade Agreements Act, countries that would include such major sources of office and Information Technology products as China, India, Taiwan and Malaysia.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
