CA Technologies Agrees to Settle Whistleblower Qui Tam Lawsuit
CA Technologies has agreed to pay $11 million to settle allegations first made by a whistleblower under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. According to CA Technologies’ website, it is an IT management software and solutions company with approximately 14,000 employees that has generated $4.643 billion in revenue in 2013.
The qui tam lawsuit suit was initially filed in 2006 by whistleblower Ann Marie Shaw, a former technical sales specialist for CA Technologies from 2003 to 2006. The whistleblower’s claim was initially brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The complaint alleged that CA Technologies violated the federal False Claims Act, as well as, similar state false claims act statutes in Florida, California, Hawai’i, Illinois, Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Specifically, the whistleblower alleged that CA Technologies knowingly overcharged hundreds of government customers for software maintenance plans by starting the new plans on the date renewal was requested, rather than on the day the existing maintenance plan expired. According to the whistleblower, this resulted in the government customers essentially being double-billed for the software maintenance plan during the overlap period.
According to the whistleblower, prior to filing the qui tam action, she brought her concerns about CA Technologies’ renewal practices to management, but was rebuffed. She then decided to file a whistleblower action under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.
According to the complaint, some of the federal government entities that were defrauded by CA Technologies were the State Department, the Department of Defense, the National Gallery of Art, and the Department of Justice.
The Florida Attorney General stated that Florida customers of CA Technologies included public school systems, public libraries, state universities, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. As its share of the settlement proceeds, Florida will receive approximately $325,000.
The other states sharing in the whistleblower settlement are California ($983,807), New York ($708,795), Illinois ($426,641), Virginia ($227,583), Massachusetts ($204,639), Washington D.C. ($35,346), Hawai’i ($25,734), and Nevada ($73,794). As her reward under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, the whistleblower will receive approximately $2 million of the settlement amount.
