A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has indicted Danielle Hillmer, a former senior manager at a Virginia-based government contractor, on charges including major government fraud, wire fraud, and obstructing federal audits. The indictment alleges that Hillmer engaged in a scheme from March 2020 through at least November 2021 to mislead federal agencies about the security status of a cloud-based platform used by the U.S. Army and other government entities.
According to court documents, Hillmer is accused of obstructing federal auditors and falsely representing that her employer’s cloud platform met required security controls. Although marketed as a secure environment for federal agencies, the indictment claims Hillmer concealed the platform’s failure to comply with standards under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and the Department of Defense’s Risk Management Framework. Specifically, it is alleged that she misrepresented compliance with FedRAMP High baseline and Department of Defense Impact Levels 4 and 5 despite warnings about inadequate access controls, logging, monitoring, and other necessary security features.
The indictment further states that during audits in 2020 and 2021, Hillmer sought to influence third-party assessors by hiding system deficiencies and instructing others to conceal issues during testing and demonstrations. She is also accused of providing false information to the U.S. Army to secure its sponsorship for Department of Defense provisional authorization. The indictment asserts that Hillmer submitted or caused others to submit authorization materials containing false information in order to obtain or maintain government contracts.
Hillmer faces two counts of wire fraud (with a maximum penalty of 20 years each), one count of major government fraud (up to 10 years), and two counts of obstruction of a federal audit (up to five years each). Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge following consideration of statutory factors.
“Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Deputy Inspector General Robert C. Erickson of the U.S. General Services Administration Office of Inspector General (GSA-OIG) made the announcement.”
The investigation is being conducted by GSA-OIG, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division. Trial Attorneys Lauren Archer and Paul Hayden from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting.
The Justice Department emphasized: “An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
