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Goldberg Kohn Litigation Chair David Chizewer is quoted in “Deloitte Settlement Bolsters Trump’s Drive Against Corporate DEI,” published in the August 27, 2026, edition of Bloomberg Law. The article concerns Deloitte’s $22 million settlement to resolve claims it violated the False Claims Act by using diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that the government said discriminated against some employees based on race or sex, and the Trump administration’s evolving definition of fraud affecting thousands of federal contractors.
Deloitte was accused of falsely certifying compliance with federal contracting rules that say a company must not engage in discrimination. The charges date to 2017, covering years when many companies had policies to acknowledge workers from historically disadvantaged groups. The Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, launched by DOJ in 2025, secured the settlement.
Deloitte’s settlement avoided potentially prolonged and massive high-stakes litigation costs. It follows a similar agreement in April 2026 when IBM agreed to pay the government $17 million.
David Chizwer is an experienced False Claims Act litigator who has served as co-lead trial counsel in some of the country's most prominent False Claims Act cases. He says that more DEI settlements could occur because the Trump administration has made clear that the cases are a priority.
“Courts have begun to view anti-discrimination and equal protection provisions as literally protecting all races and ethnicities against discrimination, as opposed to crediting the historical context for, and original intent of, these protections,” David is quoted as saying.
Whether the government’s case against Deloitte would have prevailed in court is an open question. A valid False Claims Act claim requires demonstrating “materiality,” which concerns whether certain conduct would affect a government payment decision. So if the Biden administration didn’t take actions to discourage DEI programs, a defendant could plausibly argue that pre-2025 DEI claims can’t survive, because the US government — at that time — didn’t demand anti-DEI compliance.
David noted that the materiality argument is “quite uncertain and thus, companies are shying away from the fight.”
IBM and Deloitte are the only two diversity-related FCA settlements announced so far, though Verizon Communications Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are among other companies the DOJ is investigating, the Wall Street Journal reported in late 2025.
The case is United States ex rel. Am. Alliance for Equal Rights v. Deloitte LLP , N.D. Tex., No. 25-cv-458,8/25/26.
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