Friday, November 13, 2026 Vol. I · No. 23 · Afternoon Edition Print size
Election 2026 494 of 505 races called See the results → The GOP Files Receipts on the Republican-run Washington · Sourced · Dated · On the record On Instagram 5.6M plays and counting @thegopfiles →
The Wire
Grand jury adds attempted terrorism charge against Correspondents' Dinner suspect About 32,000 immigrants face losing Medicare Feb. 1 under Republican tax-and-spending law Navy quietly fired submarine and destroyer leaders, Democrats say Congress was not told Miller memo requires White House staff to get counsel's approval before meeting lobbyists DOJ memo tells federal agencies to put English first and cut other languages On tape: Trump's Jan. 6 pardons told ICE it was beyond the law, Rep. Al Green says on the House floor Garcia calls Blanche's warning a threat; DOJ chief cites Constitution Bessent says Treasury wanted Megaspeed blacklisted, but 'Commerce has the pen' Postal Service to raise package prices Jan. 17 after $6.5 billion loss On tape: Cory Booker tells Kash Patel a federal judge vowed to toss subpoenas for reporters' phone records Grand jury adds attempted terrorism charge against Correspondents' Dinner suspect About 32,000 immigrants face losing Medicare Feb. 1 under Republican tax-and-spending law Navy quietly fired submarine and destroyer leaders, Democrats say Congress was not told Miller memo requires White House staff to get counsel's approval before meeting lobbyists DOJ memo tells federal agencies to put English first and cut other languages On tape: Trump's Jan. 6 pardons told ICE it was beyond the law, Rep. Al Green says on the House floor Garcia calls Blanche's warning a threat; DOJ chief cites Constitution Bessent says Treasury wanted Megaspeed blacklisted, but 'Commerce has the pen' Postal Service to raise package prices Jan. 17 after $6.5 billion loss On tape: Cory Booker tells Kash Patel a federal judge vowed to toss subpoenas for reporters' phone records

Corruption & Accountability · Report · File No. 261112-256

Software firm sues Lockheed and Leidos, alleging cloned code won VA contracts

4DD Holdings says two contracting giants used a copy of its health data software to win contracts worth more than $1 billion. The claims are allegations, and the case raises questions about how taxpayer-funded work is awarded.

By the Investigations Desk · · 3 min read

Every quote in this story (1) was matched word for word against its source. How we work

My clippings
Rossie D. Alston Jr.
Rossie D. Alston Jr.. Photo: screenshot of video by US Senate Judiciary Committee, Public domain

A software company has sued two of the biggest government contractors in the country. 4DD Holdings says Lockheed Martin and Leidos benefited from a clone of its data-sorting software, called TETRA, to win health data work for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The suit was filed this week in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia 1.

These are 4DD's allegations. Neither company has answered them in court, and no judge has ruled on the new claims. Lawyers for 4DD, Lockheed Martin and Leidos did not respond to a request for comment 1.

What 4DD alleges

4DD says a services firm called Systems Made Simple, or SMS, got limited access to TETRA in 2013. That happened when SMS worked as a subcontractor to merge VA and Defense Department health records 1.

According to the suit, SMS first tried to buy 4DD for $40 million, which 4DD considered far below market value. The two firms then signed a partnership deal. 4DD says SMS convinced it that the government would later pick it for a larger contract to modernize the Pentagon's old health data systems 1.

From Channel GOPSchumer says Trump settled his own lawsuit for $2 billionChuck Schumer · 1.5K plays · captioned, with the source named
SMS signed written agreements that prohibited it from using 4DD’s technology to build a competing product
4DD Holdings, plaintiff software company, in its court complaint1

4DD says SMS cloned TETRA instead of copying it the normal way. Each clone carried the original license key, so one paid license could run on many servers without payment, the complaint says. SMS then built a rival product called eHIIP, according to 4DD 1.

The suit also accuses the government of going along with underreporting of the copies. 4DD says the government wanted to avoid owing money under the Anti-Deficiency Act, a law that bars federal agencies from spending more than Congress has approved 1.

The money involved

Lockheed Martin bought SMS in 2014, and 4DD says it knew it would also get eHIIP. In 2016, Lockheed agreed to make SMS a subsidiary of Leidos in a deal valued at $4.6 billion 1.

4DD accuses Lockheed Martin of using eHIIP to win a $624 million VA contract. It says Leidos benefited from more than $760 million in federal contracts that relied on its software 1.

The new suit rests on federal claims under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, the Lanham Act and the Copyright Act, plus state claims. U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston, a Donald Trump appointee, will oversee the case 1.

A court has already ruled against the government

This is not 4DD's first fight over TETRA. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims awarded it over $12 million for copyright infringement 1. 4DD's law firm, Robins Kaplan, says the judgment announced Aug. 22, 2023, was nearly $13 million. That total included $1.1 million in sanctions against the government for destroying evidence 2.

The court also found that the government made tens of thousands of unlicensed copies. It wrote that "the Government fraudulently and materially misrepresented the extent of its copying" 2.

That matters because the new suit targets the private companies that profited, not just the agencies. The pattern 4DD describes is a contractor that allegedly copied technology, underreported its use and then won larger work. If the claims hold up, they would show how that kind of conduct can pay off when the buyer is the government. Courts have not decided that question yet.

What happens next depends on how Lockheed Martin and Leidos respond in court. Judge Alston has not yet ruled on any part of the case 1.

The Record

  1. 4DD says SMS got limited access to TETRA as a subcontractor on a VA and Defense health records project (year only given in the source) 1.
  2. Lockheed Martin bought SMS, which 4DD says also gave it eHIIP (year only given in the source) 1.
  3. Lockheed agreed to make SMS a Leidos subsidiary in a deal valued at $4.6 billion (year only given in the source) 1.
  4. The Court of Federal Claims judgment for 4DD against the government was announced, nearly $13 million including $1.1 million in sanctions 2.
Republish this story on your site or in your newsletter

Any site, blog or newsletter may run this story free of charge. Keep the credit line and its link to the original, do not sell it, and edit only for length or house style (the full terms). Photos carry their own licenses, noted under each photo on this page, so use the text alone unless a credit says otherwise.

Paste it into your editor's HTML view. The one-pixel image at the end tells our newsroom the story ran; it stores no reader data.

Sources

  1. Courthouse News, “Government contractors accused of ripping off software company for over $1 billion” (2026-11-12). courthousenews.com/government-contractors-accused-of-ripping
  2. Robins Kaplan LLP, “$13 million judgment on behalf of software developer in software copyright infringement” (2023-08-22). robinskaplan.com/experience/13-million-judgment-on-behalf-of

Found an error? Tell the newsroom. Corrections are noted at the top of the story.

More from the files

Delivered free to your door*

The Morning Edition

One short email at 7 a.m. Eastern: the day's top files, one clip worth your time, and the race to watch. Plain English, large type, no clutter.

*Your inbox. Free. Unsubscribe with one click, any time.