On behalf of their client Michael Epp, the law firms Morgan Verkamp LLC (Cincinnati) and Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP (Philadelphia) note the settlement of claims initiated by Mr. Epp alleging fraud on the part of Supreme Foodservice, the “prime vendor” of food and related items to the Department of Defense and coalition troops in Afghanistan from 2005 until at least 2009.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Judiciary Committee Chairman, reported that the Department of Justice recovered a record-breaking $24 billion under the False Claims Act in 2014 for civil and criminal penalties. The majority of the penalties were related to the financial crisis that started in 2014 and included financial institutions such as Citibank and JP Morgan.
A district court in the Eastern District of Tennessee recently upheld that utilization of statistical sampling to establish liability in false claims cases. This ruling should expand the prosecutorial capabilities of the federal and state governments , by encouraging them to pursue ever larger companies and individuals who submit a significant number of false claims for payment to the government,
As Attorney General Eric Holder prepares to step down, his success with False Claims Act cases is being highlighted by the Department of Justice. Amongst his greatest legacy is the creating Heath Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (“HEAT”) in 2009. Since its inception in 2009, the HEAT team has conducted six nationwide enforcement actions resulting in charges against 600 individuals and a financial recovery nearing $2 billion.
A recently unsealed qui tam complaint alleges that Northrop Grumman Inc. repeatedly lied that it had performed certain quality control testing on a navigational device used in military fighter jets, drones, and submarines in order to save time. Relator Todd Donaldson, a Northrop employee who was allegedly demoted from his position as plant manager at Northrop’s Salt Lake City,
After admitting in April 2014 to creating a front company, in order to obtain Cost Guard contracts designated for Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), North Florida Shipyards as well as its president, Matt Self, have agreed to pay the United States $1 million to resolve False Claim Act allegations.
In another win for the HEAT (Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team) initiative, EBI, LLC, a medical device company in Parsippany, New Jersey, doing business as Biomet Spine and Bone Healing Technologies and Biomet, Inc., will pay $6 million to resolve allegations of violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.
After a coordinated investigation by the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado and the Defense Criminal Investigative Services (DCIS), First RF Corporation has agreed to pay $10 million to settle False Claim Act violations. The allegations arose over a 2005 Army contract with First RF for the sale of electronic warfare antennas.
On October 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice settled a case against DRS Technical Services, Inc. (“DRS”), a defense contractor, regarding allegations of fraudulent billing for $13.7 million. Specifically, even though DRS employees did not meet the qualifications required of their positions by DRS’ contracts with the government, DRS billed for their work anyway,
Thanks to the efforts of two whistleblowers, or relators, the U.S. Department of Justice and eight states announced on October 10, 2014 that they had settled allegations of fraudulent billing against Extendicare Health Services, Inc. (“Extendicare) and its subsidiary Progressive Step Corporation (“ProStep”). The U.S. government and the several states involved in the investigation alleged that Extendicare billed both Medicare and Medicaid for nursing services that were so deficient as to be worthless to the government and the patients.
