Governor David Paterson has signed into law a bill that will strengthen the New York False Claims Act and give the state greater opportunity to collect money that has been fraudulently withheld from defendants. Specifically, the bill provides a qui tam provision which will allow private citizens to sue defendants…
Charles J. Antonucci, Sr., former President and Chief Executive Officer of Park Avenue Bank is the first to be criminally charged for attempting to defraud the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”). The case was unsealed in March in the southern district court of Manhattan. Agents of the Special Inspector General…
The private security firm Blackwater is the subject of a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit in the United States and the company’s founder was answering questions in Abu Dhabi on August 23rd. Erik Prince, the company’s founder, moved to the United Arab Emirates this past month, and the plaintiff’s attorney…
Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration and Production, Inc. (Dominion) and Marathon Oil have agreed to pay $2.2 and $4.6 million to the federal government to resolve allegations that the companies underpaid royalties on leases with the federal government and Native American Tribes. Many oil companies drill for oil on lands owned…
For-profit universities have recently been the subject of a number of False Claims Act lawsuits. Continuing this trend, Grand Canyon Education settled its False Claims Act suit for $5.2 million in August. The whistleblower, a former employee of the company, filed the qui tam action in August 2007. The case…
Nelnet, a student lending company based in Lincoln, Nebraska, is scheduled to go to trial on a False Claims Act case next week. The lawsuit alleges that the company defrauded the U.S. Department of Education, which subsidizes many student loans to make them more affordable to students. The lawsuit seeks…
The Ninth Circuit became the latest in a handful of other Circuits to endorse the “implied certification theory” of the False Claims Act in a decision handed down on August 9th. Liability under the FCA is most clear when a defendant falsely obtains money from the government by “expressly” certifying…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a letter to drug maker Novartis warning it to cease its incomplete and misleading promotion of the leukemia fighting drug Tasigna on Facebook. Novartis had been using Facebook’s “share button” to market the drug on the social website giant. However, in…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has settled a False Claims Act case against Minnesota based Center for Diagnostic Imaging which accused the company of Medicare fraud. The radiologic imaging company has agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.2 million to settle part of the allegations in the lawsuit that related…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking to intervene in a qui tam lawsuit against St. Jude Medical Inc., a manufacturer of pacemakers and other heart devices. The DOJ initially began its investigation in 2005, and this past December decided not to intervene in the case. However, after talking to…