Most companies have heard by now that one of the very largest GSA Schedule contractors was raided last week by a joint FBI/Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) task force.  While raids are rare, they do occur and can significantly disrupt your business and attract unwanted attention.  Here are four tips contractors should follow to minimize armed federal agents suddenly appearing at their door.

1.  Carefully Vet Your Business Partners:  The raided company is reportedly not the main target of the FBI/DCIS investigation.  Rather, it is a company that they partner with. Remember, you are “your brother’s brother”, at least according to the feds.  Companies must do a thorough check on any potential partner to ensure that their business practices measure up – and follow up with periodic checks.  The raided company took a definite relationship hit and took it during the last week of the fiscal year.  That’s a big price to pay for a partner’s problems.

2.  The Enforcement Community Does Not Care About Your Business Cycle:  The raid occurred September 24^th, the busiest time in the federal business year.  The timing not only delayed business for critical hours, but the media attention will also likely make contracting officers think twice about issuing last-minute task orders with the company.  This impacts not only the company, but those who rely upon it to be a conduit for their government business.  Contractors should take note that the enforcement communities’ mission is just that, enforcement.  They’re not so interested in the business cycle or whatever else might be happening.  They want to ensure that the documents and/or people they seek are available when they want them to be.

3.  Make Sure You Have Outside Counsel Readily Accessible:  While lawyers may or may not be able to stop or mitigate the impact of a raid on your business, they can usually find out why you’ve been visited, what the broad, general scope is of what the government is looking for and ensure that any incursion is limited specifically to what was originally authorized.  No company should incur such potentially significant business incursions without a qualified attorney available to protect their rights.

4.  Make Sure Your Company Is Ready With a Media Response:  Whether an investigator, DOJ official, or other federal agent comes to visit, it’s important to not just be prepared to cooperate but to have a strategy already in place on how you will respond.  This response doesn’t have to be specific to compliance, but more than one company has been caught flat-footed by some type of negative market or media attention.  Think of this as your company “Go Kit”, part of the set of tools you turn to in an emergency.  It’s been 42 years since the infamous “Tylenol Scare” but there’s a reason why budding business execs still read about how the company’s response helped save them from additional trouble.