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Palantir, a privately owned data firm best known for helping the
U.S. government track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden,
entered into a consent decree under which it will pay $1.7
million back wages and other funds, including the value of stock
options, to several people, the department said.
The company also will offer jobs to eight people, the statement
said. Palantir has disputed the Labor Department's allegations
but said in a statement it agreed to settle the case in order to
get on with its business.
"We disagree with the allegations made by the Department of
Labor. We settled this matter, without any admission of
liability, in order to focus on our work. We continue to stand
by our employment record and are glad to have resolved this
case," Palantir said in the statement.
Palantir, considered one of the most secretive firms in Silicon
Valley, does highly confidential work for U.S. defense and
intelligence agencies, helping them track down terrorists and
uncover financial fraud.
Its data mining system, which uses algorithms to search for
patterns and connections, was deployed to help the government
track down bin Laden.
Palantir has been a party to U.S. government contracts worth
more than $340 million since January 2010, according to the
Labor Department's lawsuit.
The company raised $880 million in funding in 2015 and was
estimated to have a valuation of about $20 billion at that time,
making it one of the highest-valued, venture-backed private tech
companies in the world.
(Reporting by Eric Beech and David Alexander; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
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