The government has awarded more than $300 million in contracts to a company launched by PayPal cofounder and outspoken Trump supporter Peter Thiel that it is now suing over alleged "racial discrimination" in its hiring process.
Palantir Technologies Inc., a Palo Alto, California-based software company that specializes in data analysis, was hit with a lawsuit on Monday by the Department of Labor, which alleges "racial discrimination" against Asians who applied for job openings and internships at the company.
"Filed with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges, the lawsuit seeks to end the company’s alleged discriminatory hiring policies and practices," the department said in a press release. "Palantir provides software and data analysis services under federal contract to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Special Operations Command and the U.S. Department of the Army."
The Labor Department listed three examples of alleged racial discrimination in the complaint.
The department says Palantir hired six non-Asians and one Asian for engineering positions from a pool of 730 applicants, 77 percent of whom were Asian.
On another occasion, Palantir hired 14 non-Asian and 11 Asian applicants from a pool of more than 1,160 qualified applicants, 85 percent of whom were Asian.
In the third instance, the company hired 17 non-Asians and four Asians for engineering internships from a pool of 130 applicants, 73 percent of whom were Asian.
"Federal contractors have an obligation to ensure that their hiring practices and policies are free of all forms of discrimination," said Patricia Shiu, the Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. "Our nation’s taxpayers deserve to know that companies employed with public funds are providing equal opportunity for job seekers."
Palantir has encountered no problems securing federal funds since the alleged discrimination in the complaint. All three of the listed examples were said to have occurred in 2010 or 2011.
Palantir was awarded its most recent contract just days ago: the Department of State awarded the firm a contract worth $500,000 on September 16. It was awarded more than $1 million from the Department of Justice and $1.7 million from the Department of Health and Human Services in August.
The company has received more than 380 federal contracts valued at over $300 million since 2008, according to publicly available data.
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Palantir, has been politically outspoken for years.
Thiel, a self-avowed libertarian, backed Ron Paul’s bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. He supported Republican Mitt Romney against President Barack Obama in 2012. This election cycle, Thiel announced his support for Donald Trump and spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Palantir denied the accusations and said the department is relying on a flawed analysis of just three job descriptions over the course of one year.
"We are disappointed that the Department of Labor chose to proceed with an administrative action and firmly deny the allegations," the company said in a statement. "Despite repeated efforts to highlight the results of our hiring practices, the Department of Labor relies on a narrow and flawed statistical analysis relating to three job descriptions from 2010 to 2011."