On August 30, 2012, the Department of Justice (DOJ) began emailing hospitals across the country with strict instructions to examine questionable implantable defibrillator surgeries on Medicare patients and estimate potential penalties under the False Claims Act. Prosecutors of the DOJ have been investigating for over two years as to whether or not some Medicare patients have received implanted defibrillators outside of CMS rules on when these devices can be used.
Within the past year, whistleblowers inside of American corporations are divulging information about employers that could give them part of multi-million dollar penalties won by financial regulators under a Securities and Exchange Commission program. Whistleblowers are exposing more than simply names; they are turning over documentation including e-mails and audio recordings because they are motivated by cash and the turning in of wrongdoers.
Omnicare, Inc., based in Covington, Kentucky, agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging it submitted false claims for reimbursement to government health insurers and paid a “kickback” when it bought the pharmacy company, Total Pharmacy Services, LLC. Omnicare is a company that supplies drugs to nursing homes. The 2007 lawsuit was filed by whistleblower,
In Paducah, Kentucky, a False Claims complaint has been settled regarding landfill operations. The qui tam complaint, United States ex rel. Vander Boegh v. Bechtel Jacobs Company, LLC, was filed by C. Dean Furman, Esquire on behalf of the United States of America, in addition to filing by Relator,
In U.S. v. Alderson, 686 F.3d 791 (9th Cir. July 18, 2012), a case of first impression, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that a relator’s share should be treated as ordinary income for tax purposes rather than as capital gain. Given the lack of authority for both the qui tam relator and the Government’s positions,
After just one year of operation, the SEC made the first payment under its Whistleblower Program. The program was established in August 2011 as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The whistleblower will receive nearly $50,000, representing 30% of the amount collected in an SEC enforcement action against the perpetrators of a securities fraud scheme.
On August 13, 2012, a U. S. District Court in Dallas, Texas entered a final judgment in the amount $40,472,759 for Qui Tam plaintiffs against a defendant for violations of the False Claims Act. The violations stemmed from fraudulently inflated charges that were submitted by a government subcontractor to Lockheed Martin Corporation and then passed on to the United States government.
On July 27, 2012, it was announced that the McKesson Corporation agreed to pay $151 million to 29 states to settle allegations that the company artificially raised Medicaid drug prices, resulting in excess charging for prescription medications. More specifically, it was alleged that McKesson provided inflated prescription-drug information for a wide variety of brand-name drugs and the knowledge that the information would be given to First DataBank,
A recent Senate report stated that for-profit colleges mismanage taxpayer money despite their reliance on federal financial aid which accounts for as much as 90% of their revenue. The report was issued by U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions which is chaired by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin.
Defense subcontractor, Robbins, LLC, settled False Claims Act allegations filed by a former employee, James Brown of Temple, Georgia. Mr. Brown filed the suit alleging that Robbins used an expired ingredient, Elastomag 170, when mixing a rubber compound used in sonar nose cones for U.S. Navy ships. Goodrich subcontracted with Robbins to prepare two rubber compounds which would form the outer layers of the sonar nose cones.
