IBM pays $17.1M in first DEI False Claims Act settlement under civil rights fraud initiative

The Department of Justice announced on April 10, 2026, that IBM agreed to pay $17,077,043 to resolve the first-ever False Claims Act settlement under the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, resolving allegations that IBM maintained diversity hiring targets in federal contracts after EO 14173. The DOJ alleged IBM used a "diversity modifier" tying manager bonuses to demographic hiring targets and applied race- and sex-based criteria to interview slates and candidate sourcing. IBM received cooperation credit for early disclosure and voluntarily remediated its practices, but neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.