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False Claims Act - Qui Tam

Current developments in whistleblower lawsuits brought under the False Claims Act, a law designed to combat fraud against the government.
By Phillips & Cohen LLP

Post Frequency: 1.9/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 17:41:00

Government pursues more foreign bribery cases

Posted on October 17, 2010
The government's prosecution of cases under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has resulted in record-shattering fines and criminal convictions of executives. And it seems as though its use will be increasing.Thus far in 2010 the Dept. of Justice has carried out a dozen prosecutions, after 19 prosecutions in 2009...

Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions not popular with corporate directors

Posted on October 17, 2010
A survey by Corporate Board Member of more than 400 board members reveals that they are not huge fans of the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.In fact, directors don't seem to believe that many of the law's most important provisions will improve governance...

FDA threatens pharma executives with individual penalties for off-label marketing

Posted on October 14, 2010
A round of applause for Food and Drug Administration Deputy Chief for Litigation Eric Blumberg. He said yesterday at a conference in Washington that executives of pharma companies that promote off-label marketing of drugs could be prosecuted for misdemeanors under what?s known as the ?Park Doctrine,? Bloomberg reported...

CHRISTUS Health will pay nearly $1 million to settle whistleblower suit

Posted on October 12, 2010
CHRISTUS Health, a Texas-based hospital chain, has agreed to pay almost $1 million to settle allegations that it committed Medicare fraud by falsely billing for unapproved medical costs and failing to disclose overpayments.Whistleblower Mark Razin was a Healthcare Financial Advisors employee who worked with CHRISTUS on cost reports to maximize Medicare reimbursement...

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Phillips & Cohen picked for 2010 ?Plaintiffs? Hot List;? recognized for whistleblower work

Posted on October 10, 2010
Phillips & Cohen LLP, the nation?s most successful law firm representing whistleblowers, has been selected for the National Law Journal?s ?Hot List? of the Top 12 plaintiffs? law firms in the U.S. for 2010.It is the fourth time in seven years that Phillips & Cohen has been named to the National Law Journal?s highly selective ?Hot List? for its work on whistleblower cases...

Securities fraud whistleblower exposed Ponzi scheme

Posted on October 10, 2010
The story of a stock trader who went undercover to help the FBI expose a Ponzi scheme shows some of the problems that have confronted the government even when it knows that a fraud is occurring.Ty Schlobohm brought his concerns about investments promoted by Trevor Cook to the attention of the Justice Department, the Securities & Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission...

Drug companies under investigation for bribing officials overseas

Posted on October 06, 2010
Several large drug companies - including Merck & Co., AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and GlaxoSmithKline - have said that they are being investigated for bribing government officials overseas to gain a larger share of business, the Wall Street Journal reports...

Novartis Pharmaceuticals agrees to pay $422.5 million for off-label marketing

Posted on October 01, 2010
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation has agreed to pay $422.5 million in two separate settlements resulting from their alleged off-label drug marketing. According to the accusation, Novartis profited by ?hundreds of millions of dollars? through their off-label promotion of Trileptal...

Supreme Court accepts "state secrets" cases for review

Posted on September 28, 2010
The Supreme Court has added two cases to its docket that will examine the possible limitations of the ?sate secrets? doctrine. These cases involve Navy and military contractors whose contracts have been terminated. The contractors have refused the requested return of $1...

Corporate execs can run but can?t hide from Medicare fraud penalty under House-passed bill

Posted on September 23, 2010
The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ban corporate executives from doing business with Medicare if their companies engaged in Medicare fraud ? even if they left the companies before the conviction. This would mean they could run, but there would be nowhere to hide...

Whistleblowers still SEC's best weapon against fraud

Posted on September 14, 2010
While the exchanges bicker over the cost of implementing real-time market tracking systems (?Charges Bring SEC Hope for New Weapon,? Wall Street Journal, Aug. 30), on-the-ground whistleblowers remain the Securities and Exchange Commission's best "weapon" in both enforcement and deterrence...

Report suggests Pentagon watchdog is ignoring fraud

Posted on September 09, 2010
In a 73-page report released today, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has accused the Pentagon?s official watchdog of complete failure in their responsibility to audit defense contracts to prevent fraud. Grassley wrote in his report that ?the OIG Audit junkyard dog has been de-fanged and rendered harmless...

A toothless watchdog? Federal courts speak up when the SEC refuses

Posted on September 07, 2010
There?s a remarkable new trend in federal courts: Judges are refusing to rubber stamp deals federal agencies have worked out with financial industry defendants. Is this a sign of things to come?The New York Times recently wrote about several judges who looked at proposed settlements and questioned whether they were in the public interest...

Cisco and Westcon to pay $48 million in False Claims Act settlement

Posted on September 07, 2010
Cisco and Westcon Group North America have agreed to pay $48 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act through misrepresentations made to the General Services Administration (GSA) and other federal agencies.Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, said that "when contractors provide incomplete and untruthful information to the government, we will take action to restore the integrity of the procurement process and protect taxpayer dollars...

Botox makers to plea guilty and pay for ?off-label? marketing

Posted on September 01, 2010
Allergen, Inc., the maker of Botox Therapeutic, has agreed to plead guilty and pay $600 million, following the criminal and civil accusations that it was actively promoting Botox for ?off-label? uses between 2001 and 2008.The criminal information filed indicates that Allergen substantially increased its efforts to market the Botox for off-label purposes, helping doctors to bill Medicaid and other health providers for the injections not covered by Botox?s limited FDA approval...

New York Times comments on amended False Claims Act

Posted on August 24, 2010
This month's New York False Claims Act amendment has received attention from the New York Times blogger Nicholas Confessore, who notes that that the new law could ?sharply expand investigations of wealthy tax cheats by empowering whistle-blowers to file law suits against them...

Florida hits benchmark for fraud control, obtains permission for pilot fraud control program

Posted on August 21, 2010
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced today that his Medicaid Fraud Control unit has recovered over $400 since 2007, following numerous investigations into the activities of various individuals, companies, and hospitals suspected of intentionally defrauding the state?s Medicaid program...

Energy companies to pay $6.9 million in settlement of whistleblower case

Posted on August 20, 2010
A case filed under the False Claims Act has resulted in the payment of $6.9 million to the United States by energy companies Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration & Production Inc. and Marathon Oil Company, for their failure to pay in full royalties on natural gas produced on federal and Indian leases...

Indiana Attorney General urges potential whistleblowers to come forward

Posted on August 19, 2010
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is encouraging those with knowledge of fraud in the health care and pharmaceutical industries to come forward and act as whistleblowers, by reminding workers in those fields that they can collect a portion of the damages and simultaneously prevent further waste of tax dollars...

New York strengthens its False Claims Act

Posted on August 14, 2010
New York Governor David Paterson signed into law today a bill that amends the New York False Claims Act, strengthening the act so as to be ?at least as effective as the federal Act.?In addition to other changes, the bill adds new protections for whistleblowers and broadens the scope of damages of which a portion is to be allotted to the whistleblower...

Student lender agrees to pay $55 million settlement in whistleblower case

Posted on August 13, 2010
Student lender Netlet said today that it has agreed to pay a $55 million settlement, resulting from a whistleblower case that was set to begin trial on Tuesday, but was delayed by the judge so as to facilitate settlement talks.Whistleblower Jon Oberg helped discover in 2006 that several student lenders had been receiving an erroneously high return on loans through a program that was supposed to have been phased out in 1993, according to the Omaha World Herald...

Illinois whitleblowers to recieve improved protection, reward

Posted on July 28, 2010
The Illinois False Claims Act has been strengthened by a bill passed today that will provide increased protection and reward for whistleblowers, as well improve the State?s ability to recover the high costs involved with litigation.Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who drafted the bill, said that ?the new provisions in this law will help to deter fraud and make the recovery of taxpayer dollars easier...

EMC Corp. settles False Claims Act suit

Posted on June 01, 2010
EMC Corp., a maker of data storage machines, has agreed to pay the federal goverment $87.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and the Anti-kickback Act. The suit alleged that EMC represented during contract negotiations that it would conduct price comparisons to ensure that the government received the lowest price although it knew it was not capable of doing such a comparison...

AstraZeneca will pay $520 million in off-label marketing settlement

Posted on April 27, 2010
The U.S. Dept. of Justice announced that pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will pay $520 million to settle allegations of off-label marketing.Charges that the company illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel were originally raised in a lawsuit brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act...

HHS OIG adds state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit information

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Inspector General for the Dept. of Health and Human Services has created a page on its website that collects information about state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs).State MFCUs investigate and prosecute fraud by Medicaid providers as well as patient abuse and neglect in "board and care" facilities that do not receive Medicaid funding...

Former whistleblower special counsel will plead guilty to withholding evidence

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Washington Post reports that Scott J. Bloch, the Bush-era director of a federal office in charge of protecting government whistleblowers from unfair treatment, will plead guilty to withholding information from congressional investigators.The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia filed papers accusing Bloch of failing to truthfully answer questions about whether he arranged for private computer technicians to "scrub" his office computer and that of other political appointees...

NY AG says Medicaid fraud unit recovered $283 million in 2009

Posted on April 19, 2010
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that the state's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) recovered more that $283 million in 2009.The unit also obtained 148 criminal convictions related to Medicaid fraud.Cuomo's office submitted an annual report to the Secretary of the U...

Maryland Governor signs False Claims Act

Posted on April 13, 2010
Governor Martin O?Malley has signed the Maryland False Health Claims Act, introduced as Senate Bill 279.The Governor's press release says that the new legislation will allow Maryland to recover damages and penalties from individuals who defraud the state by filing false claims against state health plans and programs, including Medicaid...

SEC Inspector General recommends improvements to its whistleblower program

Posted on April 06, 2010
The Securities & Exchange Commission has had a bounty program for whistleblowers in place since 1989, but has made only five payments for a total of $159,537.A report from the SEC's Inspector General says that "the current SEC bounty program is not fundamentally well-designed to be successful...

Jusge orders Fresenius to pay $19.3 million in qui tam suit

Posted on March 25, 2010
A federal judge in Nashville has found that Fresenius, the parent company of Renal Care Group, violated the False Claims Act, the Nashville Business Journal and the Tennessean reported.The judge ordered the dialysis supplier to pay $19.3 million for improper claims submitted to Medicare for home dialysis supplies...

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