In early June 2011, a U.S. District Court Judge ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $327 million due to its deceptive marketing of the antipsychotic medication, Risperdal. The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S.
On June 17, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the settlement of claims against Fluor Hanford, Inc.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the development of New York City’s automated payroll system – known as CityTime – was the subject of significant fraudulent kickbacks.
The Tucson Sentinel reports that despite Congressional expansion of the IRS whistleblower program in 2006, the program does not live up to its expectations. In the four years since Congress passed the new program, only one whistleblower has purportedly collected an award—an accountant who collected $4.5 million for reporting a $20 million tax underpayment.
On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Vermont law that blocked drug manufacturers’ use of prescription drug information in marketing campaigns designed to sell new drugs to physicians.
Last week, United States District Judge Steve Merryday upheld Relator John King’s amended qui tam Complaint against grenade manufacturer DSE, Inc. and its subcontractors Kaman Precision Products, GTI Systems, and JKS Industries. Mr. King, a former employee at DSE, alleges that the company terminated him from the position of quality-assurance manager when he refused to certify the quality of defective grenades that either exploded prematurely or failed to explode at all.
Two American businessmen, George H. Lee and his son, Justin W. Lee, have been charged with giving U.S. Army officers airline tickets, vacations, and over $1 million in bribes to secure multimillion-dollar contracts to provide supplies to the U.S. military and to help rebuild Iraq.
American Medical Response (“AMR”), one of the country’s largest private ambulance services, will pay the United States government $2.7 million to resolve allegations that it defrauded Medicare and other federal health insurance programs.
The allegations against AMR were originally brought by several former employees, who alleged that AMR coded “basic life support” calls as “advanced life support,” which are reimbursed at a higher rate by Medicare.
Three related companies, Areté Sleep LLC, Areté Sleep Therapy LLC and Areté Holdings LLC, have agreed to pay the United States Department of Justice $650,000 to settle claims that the Areté companies defrauded Medicare in violation of the False Claims Act. The settlement resolves claims that Areté submitted false claims to Medicare for diagnostic sleep tests performed by technicians lacking the licenses or certifications required by Medicare’s rules and regulations.
On May 26, 2011, Judge William J. Haynes, Jr. awarded the United States $82,642,592.00 in damages after granting summary judgment in favor of the government on its False Claims Act (“FCA”) claim against Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc. The award was based on treble damages under the FCA of $38,873,592 and $43,769,000 in civil penalties.
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.