The Department of Justice Antitrust Division has intensified its prosecution of government contractors through its Procurement Collusion Strike Force, which has opened nearly 200 investigations since 2019. With a new whistleblower program generating a surge of leads and recent guilty pleas in bid-rigging schemes involving military contracts, contractors face heightened scrutiny and significant risks including jail time, debarment, and civil litigation.
United StatesAntitrust/Competition Law
Recent statements by Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division leadership evidence the division’s heightened focus on prosecuting government contractors for procurement fraud.
Since 2019, the Antitrust Division has stood up, trained and deployed a multiagency task force charged with combatting antitrust crimes in the procurement process. In the past couple of years, this Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) has become the Antitrust Division’s primary weapon for prosecuting bid rigging, price-fixing and market allocation in government procurement. Now, with the Antitrust Division’s recent unveiling of its first ever whistleblower program, the Antitrust Division has warned that it has a “surge” of leads to fuel its investigations.1 Government contractors should be aware that they are under the PCSF’s microscope and take care to implement a robust antitrust compliance program to prevent and detect antitrust misconduct.
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