In 2016, two VA employees nearly handed the complete health records of every veteran who had ever used VA healthcare — including DNA from the Million Veteran Program — to a private AI startup called Flow Health. VA leadership found out when the company issued a press release.
The VA Inspector General spent four years investigating. They documented at least five specific false statements made to the approving official. DOJ declined to prosecute. Both employees were still at VA when the report was published in January 2021.
This is Part 2 of our three-part investigation into a decade of VA data security failures.