Hewlett-Packard reportedly will pay about $50 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice over alleged kickbacks in connection with government IT contracts.
HP announced a settlement in principle Aug. 2 that would reduce the company’s third-quarter profits by 2 cents share.
The agreement still needs to be approved by the DOJ, other government agencies and a U.S. District Court in Arkansas.
According to the DOJ, HP paid $3 million to system integrators between 2001 and 2006 in hopes of getting favorable treatment in government contracts.
Whistleblower lawsuits, filed by officials with Accenture and PricewaterhouseCoopers, initially were filed in 2004 against Accenture, HP and Sun Microsystems for allegedly soliciting payments or making those payments for governmental technology contracts.
The DOJ joined the lawsuit against the three companies in 2007.
In their statement, HP officials denied any wrongdoing.