Drug lobbyists, PhRMA and BIO have been trying to sell the public on claims that kickbacks involved in the Omnicare Whistleblower Litigation, in which Omnicare, a prominent pharmacy benefit manager, allegedly accepted bribes from most top drug companies in return for pushing expensive medicines over cheaper alternatives, offered rebates to Omnicare,
CDI, a Philadelphia supplier of engineering services on commercial and military projects, agreed to settle a false claims act lawsuit based on claims of mischarged labor costs for the period from January 2001 through December 2006. An investigation revealed that CDI directed billing of labor costs (at increments less than .5 hours to evade detection) to be reimbursed by the military for work that was never done.
Harold Salamon, a Haitian immigrant, who was hired as a financial analyst by government contractor Louis Berger group, became a whistleblower against the company. The company recently settled civil and criminal fines in the amount of $69.3 million and accepted a deferred prosecution while allowing the company to continue bidding for government contracts.
Philadelphia based Norian Corp, its corporate parent, Synthes, Inc., and four Norian executives have pleaded guilty in connection with conducting unauthorized tests of its bone cement product in the spine of more than 200 patients, an “off-label” use for which it had trained many surgeons.
Our website has been updated to include information on the Security and Exchange Commission’s new Whistleblower Program created by the Dodd-Frank bill. Please visit us at www.falseclaimsact.com.
Marc Raspanti, a name partner of our firm, was featured in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer. Please click on the following link to read about Marc Raspanti’s career and opportunities for whistleblowers in today’s economic and legislative climate.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20101128_Big_money_whistle-blower_suits_on_the_rise.
On November 10, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Maurice B. Cohill, Jr., of the Western District of Pennsylvania denied the defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, thereby permitting the qui tam action by the doctors and U.S. Government to go forward.
On October 20, 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) announced guidelines enabling the barring of executives of pharmaceutical companies from contracting with U.S. Government health programs when they know, or if the OIG concludes they should have known, about Medicare fraud at their company.
On November 5, 2010, an engineering contractor, Louis Berger Group, Inc. (“LBG”), agreed to pay over $69 million to settle claims of defrauding the U.S. Government related to reconstruction contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. LBG is a New Jersey-based engineering consulting company which performed engineering contracts for the U.S. Department of Defense and United States Agency for International Development in Iraq and Afghanistan.
St. Joseph Medical Center has agreed to pay the United States $22 million to settle allegations under the False Claims Act that it paid unlawful remuneration under the Anti-Kickback Act and violated the Stark Law when it entered into a series of professional services contracts with MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates.
For more information see: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/November/10-civ-1271.
