New York company profited by sending state records to India
A New York IT contractor "swelled its profits" by outsourcing government work offshore that should not have left the state. A major part of the work was sent to India in violation of state security rules, New York investigators said.
The contractor, Focused Technologies Imaging Services in Albany County, was working under a $3.45 million contract to scan and index 22 million fingerprint cards maintained by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Focused Technologies, in turn, hired an India-based company that performed about 37% of the work and was paid $82,000.
The fingerprint cards are associated with arrests and incarcerations, and with applications for jobs or licenses where a criminal history background check is required. The cards, which were all dated before 2009, contained sensitive data including signatures, Social Security numbers, physical characteristics and dates of birth. Focused Technologies employees were required to pass criminal background checks to work on it.
