Rubrik ‘not aware of a connection’ between investigation of former employee and FBI’s Carahsoft raid

Cloud data management and cybersecurity firm Rubrik said it is “not aware of a connection” between an ongoing federal investigation into a former employee and an FBI raid at Carahsoft’s headquarters last week. The Justice Department served Rubrik with a grand jury subpoena last October regarding a former employee who had worked in Rubrik’s sales division and potential violations of federal law in connection with government contracts. 

The FBI and Defense Criminal Investigative Service raided Carahsoft Sept. 24, Nextgov/FCW first reported. The raid occurred during the final week of the government’s fiscal year, among the busiest times for federal contractors.

“We are aware of recent reporting regarding Carahsoft and the grand jury subpoena served at Carahsoft’s Virginia offices. As previously disclosed, we received a grand jury subpoena from the Department of Justice in October 2023 related to Rubrik’s federal sales business and we are cooperating fully with that investigation,” said Pete McGoff, Rubrik’s chief legal officer and corporate secretary, in a statement late Thursday.

“We are not aware of a connection between the recent reporting regarding Carahsoft and the matter previously disclosed by us,” he added.

In separate Securities and Exchange Commission filings in April and in September, Rubrik said the Justice Department was seeking information “regarding two specific companies, which we subsequently learned were associated with an employee from one of our sales teams who is no longer with the company.” 

“In the course of our internal investigation, we have discovered communications among certain employees within one of our sales teams, including such former Rubrik employee, that relate to potential violations of federal law in connection with government contracts, and are similarly cooperating with the DOJ with respect to these matters,” the filings state. The language in both filings is virtually identical.

In February, Reuters reported that the Justice Department was looking into whether a previous employee who had worked in Rubrik’s sales division moved funds from the firm’s various government contracts into a separate entity.

Rubrik is a cloud cybersecurity company that has backing from Microsoft. It went public in April and has more than 5,500 customers that include government agencies, according to its website.

Carahsoft is a privately held provider of tech and cybersecurity services to the public sector. Acting mainly as a services reseller, Carahsoft helps tech companies seeking to do business with the government broaden their sales reach by paying to have Carahsoft represent them as a vendor at government industry events. Rubrik is among their business partners, according to their website.

Rubrik declined to comment to Nextgov/FCW beyond their statement on the matter. Carahsoft declined to answer specific questions, and pointed to a previous statement that the Sept. 24 raid concerned DOJ representatives “conducting an investigation into a company with which Carahsoft has done business in the past.” Carahsoft said it’s “fully cooperating on this matter.”

DCIS and the FBI both declined to comment when sent follow-up questions about the nature of the raid. The Justice Department did not return a request for comment.

Editor’s note: Carahsoft is an advertising client of Nextgov/FCW