$44.5 Million Settlement for Overcharging USA

SACRAMENTO (CN) - Records manager Iron Mountain will pay $44.5 million to settle claims that it overcharged federal agencies for record storage and information services, the Department of Justice said.

The settlement will resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that Iron Mountain Inc. and Iron Mountain Information Management did not meet contractual obligations with the General Services Administration.

Iron Mountain, which provided storage services to government entities from 2001 to 2014, did not provide GSA with accurate information about its commercial sales practices during contract negotiations, did not offer lower prices to government customers as required under the contracts, and charged the government for storage that did not meet National Archives and Records Administration requirements, prosecutors said.

Patrick McKillop and Brent Stanley filed the whistleblower action under the False Claims Act in the Eastern District of California. McKillop, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, is an executive in the records management industry. Stanley is a former Iron Mountain executive.

McKillop and Stanley will share slightly more than $8 million of the settlement for their efforts. Their attorney, Paul Scott, said his clients a "extremely gratified by the resolution of the case."

Iron Mountain said it self-reported pricing issues to the GSA and worked with the government to come to a resolution.

Its executive vice president Ernest Cloutier said the company was "pleased to have reached this resolution and put the matter behind us."

In addition to the federal settlement, Iron Mountain will pay $870,000 to San Bernardino County, $575,000 to Santa Clara County, and $125,000 to California to resolve allegations under the California False Claims Act.

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