DOJ says government contractor misled agencies about platform’s FedRAMP compliance

A Virginia woman is facing federal charges after she allegedly carried out a multi-year scheme to mislead agencies over a government contractor’s compliance with security controls. 

A federal grand jury indicted Danielle Hillmer on Tuesday, charging the former senior manager with major government fraud, wire fraud and obstructing federal audits, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors said Hillmer worked for a Virginia-based government contractor that provided cloud computing services to at least six federal agencies, including the Army and the departments of State and Veterans Affairs. 

From at least November 2018 through November 2021, Hillmer oversaw the cloud platform’s assessments and continuous monitoring, the DOJ said, with the alleged scheme beginning around March 2020. 

The indictment does not list the company, though a now-deleted LinkedIn page appearing to match Hillmer listed work experience at Accenture, SentinelOne and CGI. The timeline presented in the indictment corresponds with when Hillmer, according to the LinkedIn profile, appeared to be working at Accenture.

In a statement to FedScoop, an Accenture spokesperson said: “As previously disclosed in our public filings, we proactively brought this matter to the government’s attention following an internal review.”

“We have cooperated extensively with the government’s investigation and continue to do so,” the spokesperson continued, adding the company is “dedicated to operating with the highest ethical standards.”

Hillmer, according to the DOJ, is accused of “making false and misleading representations about the platform’s security and risk posture to help [the company] obtain and maintain lucrative federal contracts.” 

This allegedly included concealing the platform’s noncompliance with security controls under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, better known as FedRAMP, along with the Department of Defense’s Risk Management Framework. Specifically, prosecutors said Hillmer claimed security controls were implemented in the platform at the FedRAMP High level and at DOD impact levels 4 and 5. 

Prosecutors said this occurred despite repeated warnings from employees and outside consultants that the platform did not have required access controls, logging, monitoring and other security functions. Hillmer allegedly knew the platform lacked the required security controls and that the consumer environments were not managed or secured as stated in the platform’s system security plan. 

Hilmer is also accused of trying to influence and impede third-party assessors conducting audits by hiding the platform’s deficiencies and telling others to conceal the “true state of the system” during these tests. 

“These deceptive acts enabled [the company] to fraudulently obtain and retain government authorization to operate the platform and government contracts that required a level of security that the platform did not actually provide,” the indictment states. 

The indictment pointed to one private chat between an employee and Hillmer from July 2021, during which the employee wrote, “we’ve dodged the [multi-factor authentication] implementation bullet for now, but it could come up again…We aren’t out of the woods yet.” Hillmer responded with a fingers-crossed emoji, the indictment stated. 

In doing so, Hillmer sought to “unlawfully enrich herself through continued compensation in salary and bonuses,” prosecutors said. 

She is charged with two counts of wire fraud, one count of major government fraud and two counts of obstruction of a federal audit, with the wire fraud charge holding a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

This story was updated Dec. 10, 2025, with comments from an Accenture spokesperson.