FBI raids Carahsoft offices, seizes computers

Agents from the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service were seen at Carahsoft’s headquarters in Reston, Va., seizing documents and employees’ computers, said John Weiler, executive director of the IT Acquisition Advisory Council. Because of his work in the government technology contracting space, Weiler said he was briefed on the search by several people with direct knowledge of it.

A Carahsoft employee in the Virginia office, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, confirmed that staff had been informed of the FBI raid internally.

“Representatives of the Department of Justice came to Carahsoft’s office today as they conduct an investigation into a company with which Carahsoft has done business in the past,” said Mary Lange, a Carahsoft representative.

“Carahsoft is fully cooperating in this matter,” she said. “We are operating business as usual.”

An FBI spokesman said the agency “conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity” on the street where Carahsoft has its offices, but declined to elaborate. Mollie Halpern, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense Inspector General, said: “I can confirm that DCIS executed a joint search operation with the FBI this morning in northern Virginia.”

Carahsoft is a closely held company that since its inception in 2004 has become a dominant player in the technology procurement market. Last year, it ranked 45th on Forbes’ list of the largest private companies in the US, with estimated revenues of $11 billion and more than 2,400 employees.

On its website, Carahsoft says it works with thousands of vendors, resellers, systems integrators and managed service providers to provide IT solutions to public sector customers in the US and Canada. Vendors listed on its website include Microsoft, Google, Oracle, AWS, Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.

Reston, where Carahsoft is headquartered, is a suburb about 20 miles from downtown Washington that is popular with publicly traded and tight-knit government contractors.

Hours after the raid, the parking lot in front of the company’s five-story office building was nearly empty. A Bloomberg News reporter who visited near the end of normal business hours was turned away at the door by two men inside the lobby. The only other visitor was a man making a food delivery.

The FBI action was previously reported by Nextgov/FCW.

(Updates with comments from DCIS in sixth paragraph.)

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