- Former Accenture employee charged by DoJ
- Employee is accused of misrepresenting security executives to obtain and retain government contracts
- Accenture didn’t comply with FedRamp, but agencies were led to believe it did
The US Department of Justice has confirmed that a former product manager at Accenture, Hilmer, has been indicted for allegedly lying to government clients about the security measures of cloud products.
According to the DoJ, the Accenture cloud platform did not meet requirements for security controls, but the defendant lied to potential clients to conceal security issues and asked others to do the same.
Specifically, Accenture failed to comply with the Federal Risk Management and Authorization Program (FedRAMP) – the framework used by federal agencies to ensure ongoing assessment, authorization and monitoring of cloud products and services.
Misrepresentation
The former employee is also accused of submitting documents containing false information to obtain and pursue government contracts. According to the indictment, Hilmer “made false and misleading statements to the United States Army to induce it to sponsor the Department of Defense’s Interim Authorization Platform.”
“Hillmer is charged with two counts of wire fraud, one count of major government fraud, and two counts of obstructing a federal audit. If convicted, Hillmer faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud, a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for major government fraud, and a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count of obstructing a federal audit.
SecurityWeek contacted Accenture and a spokesperson provided the following statement:
“As previously stated in our public filings, we proactively brought this matter to the government’s attention following an internal review. We have cooperated extensively with the government’s investigation and continue to do so. We remain committed to operating under the highest ethical standards as we serve all of our customers, including the federal government.”
Via: Safety Week
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