Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetOn January 5, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a two-year statute of limitations was the appropriate period for assessing the timeliness of an action brought by a private employee alleging retaliation by a former employer in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA). The plaintiff, Michael Riddle, allegefs [...]

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TweetLast week, the U.S. government filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reopen a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. that alleged the drug manufacturer paid kickbacks to physicians who prescribed its drug Genotropin. The case, U.S. ex rel. Peter Rost v. Pfizer Inc., began [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Justice last week announced that it filed a complaint in a whistleblower lawsuit against AseraCare Hospice, a for-profit organization with 65 hospice providers in 19 states. The complaint alleges that AseraCare violated the False Claims Act when it knowingly enrolled in hospice care individuals who were not terminally ill with a [...]

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TweetLast week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Virginia-based container shipper, Maersk Line Ltd., and its Denmark-based affiliate, Maersk Line, entered into a settlement agreement in which Maersk will pay the federal government nearly $32 million to resolve allegations that the companies submitted false claims involving cargo shipments to U.S. military personnel in [...]

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TweetOn Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it collected more than $3 billion in judgments and settlements of fraud cases under the False Claims Act (FCA) for fiscal year 2011. This marks the second consecutive year in which the DOJ exceeded $3 billion in recoveries and brings the total recovered since 2009 to [...]

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TweetLast week, Medtronic Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of medical devices, agreed to pay $23.5 million to settle two lawsuits alleging that the company paid kickbacks to doctors in an effort to encourage them to implant Medtronic pacemakers and defibrillators in their patients. The Department of Justice alleged that Medtronic paid physicians between $1000 and [...]

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TweetOn December 14, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed rule that would require drug and medical device manufacturers to report their payments to physicians to federal regulators. These rules will implement the “physician payments sunshine” provisions of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The proposed rules aim [...]

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TweetKV Pharmaceutical (KV), the parent company for Ethex Corporation (Ethex), this month agreed to pay $17 million to settle claims that Ethex of violated the False Claims Act when it allegedly reported false information to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). According to the complaint filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Ethex [...]

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TweetGenentech agreed to pay $20 million to settle a recent False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuit – $5.7 million of which is being paid to whistleblower John Underwood who initiated the lawsuit.  Underwood alleges Genentech pressured its sales representatives to market off-label uses of Rituxan, a drug approved in 1997 to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Pharmaceutical laws [...]

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TweetR. Scott Oswald, Managing Principal of The Employment Law Group® law firm, was quoted in Medical Practice Compliance Alert, a biweekly newsletter aimed at assisting physicians with Medicare compliance so they do not run afoul of the Medicare rules and regulations, leading to charges of abuse or even fraud. Responding to questions regarding a whistleblower [...]

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TweetKristi Rossomando and her dental practice, The Children’s Dental Group P.C. agreed to pay $212,000 to settle claims that her practice fraudulently billed Medicaid for comprehensive oral evaluations that were never performed and for allowing staff to routinely provide care that should only be performed by a licensed dentist. Rossomando allegedly directed a hygienist to [...]

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TweetAccording to a Department of Justice Press Release, Oracle Corp. and Oracle America Inc. have agreed to pay $199.5 million plus interest for failing to meet their contractual obligations to the General Services Administration (GSA). This settlement relates to a contract Oracle entered into in 1998 to sell software licenses and technical support to government [...]

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TweetIn U.S. ex rel. Lee v. Corinthian Colleges, The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the District Court’s holding dismissing whistleblowers Nyoka Lee and Talala Mshuja’s False Claims Act complaint alleging Corinthian Colleges violated the Higher Education Act’s (HEA) ban on recruiter-incentive compensation.    Under the HEA, the federal government distributes funds to assist with [...]

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TweetThe Boeing Company has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve claims that the company overbilled the government from 2002 to 2005 for work done at a San Antonio Plant.  According to the suit, brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, Boeing inflated its estimates for the number of hours required to do [...]

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TweetIn Saunders v. District of Columbia [link to opinion], Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia held that the Federal False Claims Act has a three year statute of limitations when bringing a lawsuit against the District of Columbia.  Congress recently passed the Dodd-Frank Act, which included a [...]

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Tweet Last week CNN reported that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took control of three of Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol plants located at: Las Piedras, Puerto Rico Fort Washington, Pa Lancaster, Pa Additionally, the FDA and the U.S. Department of Justice are pursuing criminal charges against two executives for failing to comply with federally-mandated [...]

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TweetAccording to a recent Department of Justice Press Release, Ohio-based CareSource, CareSource Management Group Co., and CareSource USA Holding Co. will pay the United States and Ohio $26 million to resolve allegations that they fraudulently billed Medicaid for assessments and case management that they did not actually provide to patients.  Two former employees, Laura Rupert [...]

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TweetJudge T. S. Ellis, III denied Xe Services LLC’s motion to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit, alleging the company defrauded the government by overcharging for its security services.  Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, came to notoriety for its controversial government contracts to supply private security in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Former employees Melan and Brad Davis, [...]

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Tweet60 Minutes interviewed former GlaxoSmithKline employee Cheryl Eckard whose reports to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) led to a federal investigation of drug maker GlaxoSmithKline and to a False Claims Act lawsuit netting Eckard $96 million.  In 2002, Eckard led a quality assurance team to evaluate a GlaxoSmithKline subsidiary’s factory located in Cidra, Puerto [...]

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TweetWashington, D.C. – As announced by the U.S. Department of Justice, four student aid lenders paid $57.75 million to resolve The Employment Law Group® law firm client Dr. Jon Oberg’s False Claims Act qui tam action alleging that lenders created billing systems allowing them to receive improperly inflated interest rate subsidies from the Department of [...]

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TweetAs reported in a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, the DOJ has recovered $3 billion in taxpayer dollars under the False Claims Act.  Its press release states: Most of the cases resulting in recoveries were brought to the government by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act, the federal government’s primary weapon in the battle [...]

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TweetIn McNerney v. Lockheed Martin Operations Support, Inc., the court held that a whistleblower alleging wrongful termination in violation of the public policy promulgated under the False Claims Act does not have to show that the fraud she disclosed actually resulted in a loss to the government.  Judge Kays noted that that “the public policy [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the Fourth Circuit’s decision in U.S. ex rel. Radcliffe v. Purdue Pharma LP where the court ruled that an employment release signed by the relator before filing a qui tam action bars that action if the government had specific knowledge of the fraud prior to [...]

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TweetThe Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex rel. Kirk, an appeal from the Second Circuit, agreeing to decide whether Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document requests are per se public disclosures under the False Claims Act (FCA).  The Supreme Court should affirm the Second Circuit’s ruling by holding [...]

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TweetNovartis Pharmaceuticals reached a settlement agreement totaling $422.5 million with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania regarding civil allegations under the False Claims Act and criminal allegations under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act relating to its misbranding of Trileptal®.  For information about The Employment Law Group® and its False Claims [...]

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