In U.S. ex rel. CIMZNHCA v. UCB, Inc., 2019 WL 1598109 (S.D. Ill. Apr. 15, 2019), the court denied the Government’s motion to dismiss a facially valid case alleging illegal kickbacks. The relator is a limited liability holding company of an entity called the National Health Care Analysis Group, which is an entity formed [...]
The Department of Justice, with the Office of the United States Attorney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, recently joined a lawsuit filed by private whistleblowers against Mallinckrodt ARD LLC, a drug manufacturer. The Government’s complaint was filed on June 4, 2019, although the case had initially been filed in 2012. The case alleges [...]
In U.S. ex rel. Bibby v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 369 F. Supp. 3d 1346 (N.D. Ga. 2019), the district court that had handled the False Claims Act (“FCA”) litigation for the last seven years of its thirteen-year history rejected the Government’s attempt to limit relators to the minimum statutory share and instead awarded [...]
As readers of this blog well know, the False Claims Act allows individuals who become aware of fraud committed against the federal government to bring a lawsuit on the government’s behalf. Although there are a variety of restrictions, the whistleblower (also called a relator) files the case under seal, allowing the government to decide [...]
In an April 2019 opinion from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the court denied a company’s motion to require its employee to return all documents the employee had taken for purposes of reporting a suspected fraud to the government. In United States ex rel. Behnke v. CVS Caremark Corp., No. 14-cv-824, the court addressed [...]
On March 25, 2019, the Department of Justice announced a large settlement with Duke University for False Claims Act (“FCA”) allegations related to fraud in connection with federal grants. Duke will pay the government $112.5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the FCA through the submission of various applications and progress reports based [...]
In a unanimous decision strongly supporting whistleblowers and recognizing the public interest that they serve, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court confirmed that an employee terminated for reporting suspicious activities by a government sub-contractor could recover non-economic damages – essentially, damages for emotional distress – in addition to economic damages for loss of employment. Given the [...]
The IRS awarded former banker at UBS, whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, an award of $104 million for the inside information he provided related to UBS's illegal offshore banking tax fraud case. UBS AG, a corporation organized under the laws of Switzerland, operates a global financial services business. Beginning in 2000 and continuing until 2007, UBS, through [...]
Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion in fines to settle criminal and civil violations. The qui tam portion of the civil lawsuit arose under the False Claims Act and is said to be worth over $1 billion. At issue in the civil suit were claims relating to the company's medications, including Paxil, Wellbutrin, Advair, Lamictal, [...]
The Ninth Circuit applied the materiality requirement for claims under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and provided guidance for the application of the Supreme Court’s seminal decision on the FCA’s materiality requirement in Universal Health Servs., Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar.[1] The False Claims Act’s Materiality Requirement Under the FCA, “a misrepresentation [...]
