A quick summary:
Venice dermatologist Steven J. Wasserman will pay $26 million to the federal government for claims of Medicare fraud under the False Claims Act. It was alleged that he accepted illegal kickbacks from pathologist Jose SuarezHoyos, owner of Tampa Pathology Laboratory. Allegedly, Wasserman would send Medicare patients’ biopsy specimens for analysis and diagnosis to TPL.
The Internal Revenue Service has recommended new whistleblower rules which could weaken the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The FATCA seeks to thwart international tax evasion by mandating that foreign financial institutions must report information regarding U.S. taxpayer accounts to the IRS. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, taxpayers who have financial interest or signature authority over a foreign financial account must report account information each year to the IRS by filing a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says there is a desire among prosecutors to respond more aggressively to the 2008 sub-prime mortgage meltdown. This was after President Obama launched a task force to investigate fraud during the meltdown. The first case filed by the new task force was filed against JP Morgan Chase claiming “a systematic fraud on thousands of investors between 2005 and 2007.” Schneiderman stated he started with due diligence firms that determined the quality of loans that the banks were buying and putting into mortgage-backed securities.
Catholic Health Initiatives, previous owner of St. Joseph Medical Center, will pay the federal government $4.9 million because it kept Medicare and Medicaid patients in the hospital longer than was necessary. The company based in Denver, owns hospital around the county. Previously and unrelated to the current settlement, the medical company was involved in lawsuits from hundreds of patients who accused star cardiologist at St.
In 1996, Baldev Raj Bhutani pled guilty to one count of conspiracy and six count of violation the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for his role in manufacturing adulterated pharmaceuticals in violation of US regulations on good manufacturing processes, as well for manufacturing opioid painkillers without following proper record-keeping requirements and for using decomposed raw material;
Senator Chuck Grassley, a strong support of whistleblower rights indicated his disappointment with proposed IRS regulations governing that agency’s whistleblower program. He noted that the definition of “collected proceeds” needed to determine appropriate whistleblower awards is overly narrow, thereby making it harder for whistleblowers to collect. He also pointed out overly broad definitions in the regulations that discourage whistleblowers from coming forward.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the SEC released a report evaluating the SEC’s whistleblower program and found the program was running smoothly. The report highlighted the efficiency with which the office reviews tips, finding that it takes the staff of the Office of Market Intelligence less than a day to initially review a whistleblower complaint.
Coming on the heels of the announcement that SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami would be stepping down, the SEC appointed Vincente Martinez to run the SEC’s office of Market Intelligence, a subdivision of the Enforcement Division that harvests whistleblower tips, opens investigations and assigns cases to enforcement lawyers. Martinez served as an enforcement lawyer for eight years and was previously the assistant director of the division.
A federal lawsuit filed by prominent Delaware Valley cardiologist Nicholas L. DePace, M.D., sparked a multi-year investigation by the United States Department of Justice and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office that has resulted in New-Jersey based Cooper Health System, and Cooper University Hospital paying $12,600,000 to settle Medicare and Medicaid fraud allegations.
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.