PricewaterhouseCoopers will pay $41.9 million in civil penalties to settle claims that it over-billed the government for travel-related expenses.
The U.S. Justice Department announced Monday that the settlement involves bills paid directly by the Defense Department and other federal agencies that used PwC, as well as inflated bills passed on to the government by contractors working on federal projects.
The agreement follows a federal False Claims Act lawsuit that was filed in 2001, which prompted an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office. A company spokesman told Reuters that PwC had already changed the policy before becoming aware of the government investigation. PricewaterhouseCoopers previously paid $54.5 million to settle its share of a class-action lawsuit over travel-billing issues in another case filed in 2001 in state court in Texarkana, Ark., which accused the firm and others of over-billing clients by charging them the full face amount of travel costs, while receiving back-end rebates from vendors.
