Between 2000 and 2008, fourteen hospitals located in New York, Mississippi, North Carolina, Washington, Indiana, Missouri and Florida were overcharging Medicare when performing kyphoplasty, a procedure that is used to treat certain spinal fractures. The hospitals agreed to pay the government over $12 million to settle the allegations. To date,
TriWest Healthcare Alliance, one of the Pentagon’s major health care contractors, was fined $10M for claims the company defrauded the government by failing to pass on savings to the military. TriWest Healthcare Alliance is one of three main contractors for Tricare, the Pentagon’s health program. Four former TriWest employees filed the claim stating that TriWest “systematically defrauded” TriCare by keeping savings it brought in while working on the contract.
Influential in Securing House passage of the False Claims Act Amendments of 1986, Representative Howard Berman joins in the commemoration of its 25th anniversary. Since the False Claims Act was amended, the government has recovered over $30 billion in settlements and judgments in civil cases involving fraud against the government.
In January 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission appointed Vincente Martinez, a long-time enforcement officer at the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the head of the CFTC Whistleblower Office. The whistleblower office was established after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, and provides the CFTC with a mechanism to chase fraudulent activities in violation of the Commodities Exchange Act.
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the most recent statistics indicating the overwhelming success of the U.S. False Claims Act. Initially signed into law during the U.S. Civil War to address fraudulent government contractors, the False Claims Act has been strengthened over the years, most notably in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan.
On January 17, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Jane A. Norberg, as the Deputy Chief of the Office of the Whistleblower, responsible for oversight of the agency’s whistleblower program. The Office of the Whistleblower ensures that whistleblower complaints are handled appropriately and makes recommendations to the SEC regarding whether an individual is eligible for an award.
Philadelphia, Friday, January 20, 2012: United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Zane David Memeger and the United States Department of Justice announced today that The Boeing Company, the largest manufacturer of commercial jets and military aircraft combined, has agreed to pay $4,392,779.74 to settle a Federal False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuit brought by current Boeing employee Vincent A.
Taxpayers Against Fraud foresees more than $9 billion in False Claims Act recoveries, “…counting civil, state and criminal fines – is within the realm of possible for FY 2012,” stated Patrick Burns of TAF. The cases settled or lined up for settlement included: Merck ($950 million); GlaxoSmithKline ($3 billion); Abbott ($1.5 billion);
To resolve allegations of submitting false claims, Norfolk-based Maersk Line Limited and its Danish affiliate, Maersk Line, agreed to a global settlement of $31.9 million to the federal government. It was alleged that Maersk “knowingly overcharged the Department of Defense to transport thousands of containers from ports to inland delivery destinations in Iraq and Afghanistan,” per an announcement released from the Justice Department.
As the most comprehensive website dedicated to the False Claims Act and related statutes, www.falseclaimsact.com contains a wealth of information on the federal False Claims Act, every state false claims act, the IRS whistleblower law, and the SEC whistleblower law. The site has been updated again and now contains the text of all of the nation’s municipal false claims acts with qui tam provisions.
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.