Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP is pleased to announce the election of its newest partner, Pamela Coyle Brecht, in its downtown Philadelphia office. Ms. Brecht is an active member of the firm’s national Qui Tam Practice Group. She also has experience in employment law,
In early August, a federal jury found Gosselin World Wide Moving NV and its executive Mark Smet liable for submitting false claims in 2001 and 2002 to the U.S. government to the tune of $33.6 million, which, when trebled per the federal False Claims Act, rises to $100.8 million. The jury also held that Gosselin submitted nearly 59,000 false claims,
Shire Pharmaceuticals, LLC, a pharmaceuticals company based in Pennsylvania, recently signed a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve False Claims Act allegations related to its promotion practices of several drugs. Shire, which both manufactures and sells pharmaceuticals used in treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was facing allegations that it violated the False Claims Act beginning in 2004.
At a speech last week, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen announced changes aimed at creating better relations between whistleblowers and the IRS’s whistleblower program. The changes include a 70% increase in staff at the IRS whistleblower office – 31 new employees – to handle whistleblower filings. Mr. Koskinen’s remarks follow new whistleblower regulations designed to provide more information to whistleblowers with pending claims and pay more money to those with substantiated cases.
The Eighth Circuit had previously stated that one who files a lawsuit under the False Claims Act must provide examples of the allegedly fraudulent conduct. Last week, the court seemed to back away from this position in United States ex. rel. Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland,
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that False Claims Act defendants can deduct portions of their civil settlement payments if the parties have not, in negotiating a settlement, agreed to the tax consequences and the payment is considered compensatory as opposed to punitive.
Between 1993 and 1997,
The New York Times published an article noting that, despite huge investments in preventing Medicare fraud—up to $600 million a year—fraud against the program persists to the tune of $60 billion, which is equivalent to 10% of Medicare’s cost. For example, last year, the federal government was only able to recover $4.3 billion.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel G. Martin of the Northern District of Illinois recently issued an opinion that sanctioned a defense attorney for badgering a whistleblower during her deposition. The ruling serves as a reminder to potential whistleblowers of the difficulties in coming forward with evidence of fraud but also that the courts can be approached to ensure fairness in such litigation.
Life Care Services (Life Care) and CoreCare V (CoreCare) have agreed to pay the Department of Justice $3.75 million to settle allegations of false claims for billing for unreasonable or unnecessary rehabilitation therapy through RehabCare Group East (RehabCare), a rehabilitation therapy provider they hired to provide rehabilitation therapy services. The Department of Justice alleged that Life Care and Core Care failed to prevent RehabCare from providing unreasonable or unnecessary therapy to patients in order to increase Medicare reimbursements to the facilities.
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee has ordered a contractor who violated the False Claims Act to pay more than $700,000 in damages even through the contractor provided the government with the product it purchased.
In United States ex rel. Brian Wall v.
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.