Quicksort, Inc., Quicksort LA Inc., and Quicksort Sacramento Inc. have settled allegations of violating the False Claims Act and have agreed to pay the United States $4.2 million. The California-based companies were charged with misrepresenting the pre-sort level of mail submitted to the U.S. Postal Service from 2008 through 2010.
Four Miami-Dade healthcare operators have been charged with scheming to defraud Medicare out of a $200 million by fraudulently billing for mental health services. A whistleblower lawsuit was filed against American Therapeutic, the nation’s largest chain of community mental health centers licensed by Medicare. American Therapeutic and its senior employees were charged with scheming to bill Medicare for unnecessary group therapy sessions or sessions that never occurred.
Johnson & Johnson was required to pay $257.7 million to the state of Louisiana for wrongfully marketing the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The case centered on claims that J&J and Ortho-McNeil Janssen sent correspondence letters in 2003 to 700,000 doctors which labeled Risperdal as safer then its competitors and minimized its links to diabetes.
Angelo R. Mozilo, founder and former chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corporation, and two others settled a $73 million deal with the SEC to avoid going to trial on allegations of fraud and insider trading. The SEC suit, filed in June 2009, alleged that Countrywide’s exposure to risky loans was misrepresented by the three men and also accused Mozilo of insider trading.
Petricca Construction Company, a Massachusetts-based contractor, was allegedly involved in construction fraud and violating the Massachusetts False Claims Act. A new lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts Attorney General claims that Petricca falsely certified compliance with contracts that required Petricca to use minority- and woman-owned businesses for work equal to a certain value of the contract.
With the recent $422.5 million settlement by Novartis in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, now seems to be a good time to step back and look more broadly at the magnitude of recent FCA settlements. Over the past 22 months alone, a total of 11 pharmaceutical companies have paid over $6 billion to the government.
An Army contract employee is suing his former employer, Technologists, Inc. for demotion and termination for refusing to collect progress payments under a contract with the Army Corp of Engineers. The former employee, Robert Johnson, claims that he was told to collect a progress payment for work that was never completed.
Cisco Systems and Westcon Group North America have settled claims of overcharging the federal government and have agreed to pay the government $48 million. The settlement resolves a qui tam lawsuit brought by Norman Rille and Neal Roberts in Arkansas. The settlement covers a fraction of sales to the General Services Administration from 1997-2009 involving Westcon sales of Cisco products to the government.
On September 8, 2010, the First Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a false claims act case by invoking the public disclosure bar. The court held that a complaint for wrongful discharge under state law triggers the public disclosure bar where the wrongful termination is based on the same set of operative facts as the qui tam action.
The Justice Department is considering joining a qui tam lawsuit now under seal concerning the use of performance enhancing drugs in cycling races. The qui tam relator is Floyd Landis, a former teammate of Lance Armstrong. The federal connection to the lawsuit involves the US Postal Service’s sponsorship of Armstrong’s team for several years,
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.