The security firm that conducts 45% of all background checks for potential U.S. government employees may have falsified hundreds of thousands of background checks over a four-year period.
The Justice Department is accusing U.S. Investigations Services (USIS) of using computer software to "flush" or "dump" 665,000 background checks, submitting them as complete when the company actually had not conducted a thorough review of the candidates, according to a complaint filed on Wednesday. Prosecutors said USIS did so with 40% of all background checks between March 2008 and September 2012, defrauding the government of millions of dollars.
See also: U.S. Privacy Watchdog: NSA Bulk Phone Records Collection Is Illegal
The company conducted the background check of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden but it's unclear if his background check is among the allegedly fraudulent ones. Snowden's background check, however, may have been flawed, said Office of Personnel Management Inspector General Patrick McFarland in a Congressional hearing on June 20, 2013.
"USIS management devised and executed a scheme to deliberately circumvent contractually required quality reviews of completed background investigations in order to increase the company’s revenues and profits," argued the prosecutors in the complaint, which cited internal discussions of the practice, labeled by USIS employees allegedly involved in the scheme as "flushing" or "dumping."
"Shelves are as clean as they could get. Flushed everything like a dead goldfish," a USIS official allegedly said in an email dated Apr. 30, 2010, according to the complaint.
The Justice Department filed the complaint before the U.S. District Court in Alabama, in support of a previous lawsuit filed against USIS by Blake Percival, the company's former director of fieldwork services. Percival accused USIS or rushing cases through the system and hiding this practice from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
In the period when the alleged incomplete checks were submitted, the government paid USIS around $12 million in performance bonuses, according to The Washington Post.
USIS defended itself in a statement, arguing the allegations are limited to just a few employees, and do not reflect the company's core values of "integrity and excellence."
"The alleged conduct referenced in the civil complaint is contrary to our values and commitment to exceptional service," USIS said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "These allegations relate to a small group of individuals over a specific period of time and are inconsistent with the strong service record we have earned since our inception in 1996."
The complaint is embedded below.
United States Complaint Against U.S. Investigations Services, Inc. (USIS)

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