In America, authorities are investigating SAP for possibly overcharging government agencies.
Legal documents show that SAP is suspected of violating the law in cooperation with partner Carahsoft. This reseller supplies SAP software to government agencies, including the U.S. military, and supports maintaining the software.
Authorities want to verify that false statements were made about “SAP software, cloud storage, and related hardware and services” when coordinating bids and prices. This would potentially violate the U.S. False Claims Act, a law designed to prevent fraud in government contracts.
Long-running investigation revived
The ongoing investigation is to determine whether SAP and Carahsoft overcharged for more than a decade. Together, they sold more than $2 billion, or about 1.8 billion euros, to the U.S. government. According to the documents, the government has been working with Carahsoft since 2014.
The lawyers have been investigating since at least 2022. In June that year, they asked Carahsoft to hand over documents and information. Authorities needed emails, text messages, contracts, and staff lists. Carahsoft did not cooperate, and legal proceedings followed to obtain the information anyway.
It is unclear whether the needed information has been accessed. What is known is that a new judge has been sitting on the case since Friday. In addition, the FBI raided Carahsoft’s office on Tuesday, but it is still unconfirmed whether this raid is related to the investigation into the possible overpricing.
Carahsoft stated to Bloomberg that the FBI raid was related to “an investigation into a company with which Carahsoft has done business in the past.” SAP has not yet responded.
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