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: Virginia Qui Tam Law

Fraud on the Government--a true Equal Opportunity Employer

By Zachary A. Kitts

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The Washington Post today has this story about deaf entrepreneur John Yeh and a false claims act case filed against him by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Yeh is a graduate of Gallaudet University, and has been at the forefront of the deaf community for some years. His company, Viable Communications, provides services to the deaf, including services which allow deaf individuals to place calls.

DOJ alleges that Viable and Yeh defrauded the federal government for tens of millions of dollars by "ginning up bogus calls," among other things.

As an aside, we also see a typical response from a friend or associate of an individual accused of FCA violations. WaPo quoted:

Robert Mason, a deaf blogger who met Yeh through Gallaudet, is among those who said the charges seem out of character. Yeh has supported the university, Mason said, even inviting students to his home. "I personally found John Yeh to be a person of integrity and compassion and sincerity," he said. "Yeh always had been an ardent supporter of deaf people to be successful in their own right."

Well guess what? Just because someone is an "ardent supporter of deaf people" doesn't mean they won't rip off the government if they get the chance. The simple fact is that good people sometimes do bad things--and as anyone who has ever attended more than a few criminal sentencings can tell you, bad people even do good things sometimes.

The case was apparently filed in a U.S. District Court in New Jersey; no word on whether the case was initiated by a whistleblower.

Full post as published by Virginia Qui Tam Law on January 06, 2010 (boomark / email).