Harold Salamon, a Haitian immigrant, who was hired as a financial analyst by government contractor Louis Berger group, became a whistleblower against the company. The company recently settled civil and criminal fines in the amount of $69.3 million and accepted a deferred prosecution while allowing the company to continue bidding for government contracts.
Philadelphia based Norian Corp, its corporate parent, Synthes, Inc., and four Norian executives have pleaded guilty in connection with conducting unauthorized tests of its bone cement product in the spine of more than 200 patients, an “off-label” use for which it had trained many surgeons. The trial were made on over 200 spinal surgery patients,
Our website has been updated to include information on the Security and Exchange Commission’s new Whistleblower Program created by the Dodd-Frank bill. Please visit us at www.falseclaimsact.com.
Marc Raspanti, a name partner of our firm, was featured in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer. Please click on the following link to read about Marc Raspanti’s career and opportunities for whistleblowers in today’s economic and legislative climate.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20101128_Big_money_whistle-blower_suits_on_the_rise.html
On November 10, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Maurice B. Cohill, Jr., of the Western District of Pennsylvania denied the defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, thereby permitting the qui tam action by the doctors and U.S. Government to go forward. Doctors Dilbagh Singh, Paul Kirsch, Rao Nadella, and Martin Jacobs filed a qui tam action pursuant to the False Claims Act against Bradford Regional Medical Center (“BRMC”),
On October 20, 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) announced guidelines enabling the barring of executives of pharmaceutical companies from contracting with U.S. Government health programs when they know, or if the OIG concludes they should have known, about Medicare fraud at their company.
On November 5, 2010, an engineering contractor, Louis Berger Group, Inc. (“LBG”), agreed to pay over $69 million to settle claims of defrauding the U.S. Government related to reconstruction contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. LBG is a New Jersey-based engineering consulting company which performed engineering contracts for the U.S. Department of Defense and United States Agency for International Development in Iraq and Afghanistan.
St. Joseph Medical Center has agreed to pay the United States $22 million to settle allegations under the False Claims Act that it paid unlawful remuneration under the Anti-Kickback Act and violated the Stark Law when it entered into a series of professional services contracts with MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates.
For more information see: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/November/10-civ-1271.html
On October 26, 2010, the Washington State Investment Board announced that it will receive $11.7 million in a settlement with its former master custodian, State Street Bank. The dispute between the Board and State Street concerned the execution of certain foreign exchange transactions by the bank on behalf of the Investment Board,
On October 27, 2010, GlaxoSmithKline (“GSK”), the world’s fourth-largest pharmaceutical company by revenue, announced that it had finalized a settlement with the U.S. Government to resolve both civil False Claims Act allegations and criminal allegations related to GSK’s faulty manufacturing of prescription medications at the company’s former plant in Cidra,
If you are aware of any person, corporation or entity that you think may be violating the Federal False Claims Act or a State False Claims Act, contact us today.