Washington:

A former Indian-origin CEO of a data centre has agreed to pay USD 1.8 million to resolve a case of falsifying certification for the facility under a contract with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice said.

Deepak Jain, the former CEO of AiNET Corp, had fraudulently induced the SEC to enter into a contract by falsely certifying that his data centre at Beltsville in Maryland met Tier IV standards, which require 99.995 per cent uptime and advanced resilience features as defined by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).

“Those who do business with the government must do so fairly and honestly,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

“We will continue to pursue contractors that knowingly fail to provide required services to federal agencies,” Shumate said in a statement on Monday.

The United States alleged that these certifications were false because UpTime Council was not an operating company and never inspected the AiNET data centre.

The SEC required the contractors to deliver the data centre with at least Tier III standards, while AiNET claimed that their facility was a notch higher.

“Protecting taxpayer dollars is an OIG priority,” said SEC Inspector General Kevin Muhlendorf.

“The SEC OIG’s dedicated team of investigators and auditors works tirelessly to hold contractors accountable, and we appreciate our continued partnership with the Department of Justice in that shared endeavour,” he said.

The United States alleged that the AiNET data centre failed to comply with Tier III standards and that AiNet and Jain falsely certified to the SEC that experts from an entity called UpTime Council had inspected the data centre and determined it was Tier IV, as defined by TIA 942.

The United States alleged that these certifications were false because UpTime Council was not an operating company and never inspected the AiNET data centre.

This year, the Administration launched the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and the National Fraud Enforcement Division to enhance the Administration’s war on fraud, waste, and abuse in federal programs. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)