United Launch Alliance , a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing Corp. formed to provide cost-efficient spacecraft launch services to the federal government, has paid the United States $100,000 to settle allegations that a subcontractor paid its employees kickbacks in order to win contracts.

As a result of the preferential treatment, Centennial-based ULA, and by extension, the U.S. government, paid higher costs for certain contracts to subcontractor Apriori Technologies between 2011 and 2015, acting U.S. Attorney Robert Troyer said in a news release Wednesday.

According to Troyer, Apriori Technologies paid gratuities to certain ULA employees in order to induce ULA to award the consulting company contracts related to technology, compliance and project management.

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The Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, the National Reconnaissance Office’s Office of the Inspector General, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service conducted a joint investigation of the allegations, the news release says.

The settlement agreement is neither an admission of liability by ULA, nor a concession by the U.S. that its claims are not well founded, according to the news release.