Category: State False Claims Acts
United States ex rel. Gohil v. Aventis, Inc. is a long-running False Claims Act suit filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by an ex-sales specialist against his former employer, behemoth pharmaceutical company, Sanofi Aventis. Relator Yoash Gohil filed this qui tam suit in 2002 alleging that his former employer engaged in a fraudulent marketing scheme to promote off-label the chemo-therapy drug,
A whistleblower’s retention and disclosure of confidential documents did not amount to breach of his employment contract, according to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
In United States ex rel. Cieszyski v. LifeWatch Services, Case No. 13-cv-4052 (N.D. Ill.), relator and one-time LifeWatch salesperson Matthew Cieszyski alleges that his former employer violated federal and state False Claims Acts (“FCAs”) by submitting for government reimbursement claims for heart monitoring services that violated relevant Medicare and Medicaid regulations.
On May 19, 2015, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed into law a state false claims act that largely mirrors the federal False Claims Act, including the ability of a qui tam relator to bring an action on behalf of the state. Whistleblowers will be enticed to report fraud in companies doing work for state and local governments through the new Vermont False Claims Act,
Bills signed by Governor Larry Hogan, Speaker of the House Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller include, expanding the Maryland False Claims Act protecting whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers will be enticed to report fraud in companies doing work for state and local governments through the new Maryland False Claims act,
Speaking at a Fordham University School of Law event on Friday, March 6, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara said that whistleblower bounties and leniency agreements could be useful tools for uncovering public corruption. Bharara is the latest law enforcer to endorse the benefits of rewarding tipsters who come forward with information about misconduct.
The West Virginia House of Delegates has refused to adopt false claims legislation for the state.
The Government Fraud Prevention Act, previously known as the False Claims and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2014, was intended to uncover fraud against the state, would have given the West Virginia Attorney General the power to investigate such activity and would have permitted individuals to bring suit against anyone who knowingly caused the state to pay a false claim.
On Thursday, the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee again sent legislation which would establish a West Virginia False Claims Act to the House of Delegates.
According to House Judiciary Chairman Timothy Manchin, the leadership of the House asked the Judiciary Committee to re-examine the legislation because of concerns that the bill would result in a wave of baseless lawsuits.
In early June, two Pennsylvania State legislators introduced House Bill 1493, a state version of the federal False Claims Act. The bill would reportedly provide the state with a crucial tool in fighting healthcare waste, fraud, and abuse.
“Pennsylvanians lose as much as $200 million a year through Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse,” said Democratic State Rep.
Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General, announced that Fougera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a New York-based subsidiary of Sandoz Inc., fraudulently reported inflated drug prices to the Medicaid program and will now have to pay up.
Under the settlement agreement, Fougera will pay the state and the federal government a total of $22.75 million.
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Michael A. Morse, a partner in the law firm of Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick and Raspanti, LLP, presented at the Thirteenth Annual Pharmaceutical Regulatory and Compliance Congress and Best Practices Forum in Washington, DC on November 6, 2012. The Compliance Congress is sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Compliance Forum,
