A midwest healthcare provider agreed to resolve False Claims Act allegations brought by two whistleblowers for $18 million dollars. The plaintiffs in the qui tam case were former employees of the company. Evercare, now known as Optum Palliative and Hospice Care, is a Minnesota-based provider of hospice care in Arizona,…
A long awaited Supreme Court decision that held major implications for False Claims Act litigants was handed down this week. On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court upheld a jury verdict that found State Farm Insurance Company (“State Farm”) defrauded a federal flood insurance program to avoid paying a homeowner’s…
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently limited the enforceability of employment separation agreements that seek to ban would-be whistleblowers from filing claims against their former employers. In U.S. ex rel. Ladas v. Exelis, Inc, et al., the Court held that broad lawsuit release provisions in employment separation agreements, which…
The Fifth Circuit reversed the decision of the district court, which had ruled that further discovery was prohibited by Rule 9(b) of the False Claims Act (FCA). The holding will allow whistleblower’s Cori and Kerrri Rigsby to continue searching for fraud committed by State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. against…
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided unanimously on two issues: first, that the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act (WSLA) applies only to criminal charges and not to civil claims; second, that the first-to-file bar does not apply to new claims once a previous claim has been dismissed. The suit brought…
Moving Water Industries Corporation (“MWI”) has asked the D.C. Circuit to reverse a finding that it violated the False Claims Act in connection with its securing of $74.3 million in loans to fund Nigeria’s purchase of its pumping equipment. The violations were a result of the certifications made by the…
On June 12, in United States ex rel. Duxbury v. Ortho Biotech Products, the federal appeals court for the First Circuit held that the federal trial court properly limited discovery on a whistleblower’s False Claims Act allegations to only those allegations for which the relator could be deemed an “original…
In United States ex rel. Nathan v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals, an opinion handed down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on January 11th, 2013, the Court upheld a restrictive view of the Rule 9(b) pleading standard as applied to claims brought under the False Claims Act. The…
A recent opinion handed down by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in U.S. v. Caronia has raised serious questions about the constitutionality of criminal prosecutions for illegal promotion of drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”), a statute which many proponents…
In a decision released on August 6, 2012 in the case of United States of America v. BNP Paribas SA; BNP Paribas AMERICA; BNP Paribas Houston Agency; and Jovenal Miranda Cruz, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division allowed the government’s lawsuit alleging banking fraud under the False…