WASHINGTON (7News) \u2014 Ventana Productions, Inc. agreed to pay the United States $50,000 to resolve allegations that the company was charging the Government for products and services that were actually employee food expenses. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia<\/a> announced that it had reached a settlement with Ventana after looking into claims that the company was billing the Department of Commerce for various information technology products and services. <\/p>\n SEE ALSO: How Medicaid fraud could affect your tax dollars and health care<\/a><\/p>\n After receiving an anonymous tip, the Department of Commerce<\/a> Office of Inspector General (\u201cOIG\u201d) investigated and found seven different instances of Ventana invoicing the Census Bureau <\/a>for nonexistent items. Ventana faked purchases of things like hard drives, parking and media transfers, which in actuality were purchases from restaurants including Dunkin Donuts, Corner Bakery, Panera Bread, and Joe Theismann\u2019s Restaurant. <\/p>\n Rather than having to pay the $1,533.27 that was the total of all the food expenses, the production company had to settle potential claims for damages and penalties under the False Claims Act<\/a> and pay the U.S. significantly more, said the OIG.<\/p>\n Ventana had previously performed multimedia production support work for the U.S. Census Bureau under two General Services Administration contracts and had been falsely billing the Bureau from July 2019 to February 2024. <\/p>\n