US settles fraud case with company behind Snowden's background check
Summary
The Department of Justice has settled a case against the background check company that vetted Edward Snowden and Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis. US Investigations Services (USIS), which was accused of circumventing the review process for many of its reports, agreed to forfeit at least $30 million in outstanding payments from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM). USIS was founded in 1996 as a privatized version of the OPMs background check service, handling large numbers of investigations for federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. The Justice Department filed formal charges against USIS in early 2014, saying that the company had submitted 665,000 unreviewed background checks — or roughly 40 percent of its submissions between 2008 and 2012. The case didnt specifically accuse USIS of improperly handling Snowdens or Alexis background checks, although it raised questions about the overall quality of the reviews.