Top Ten Non-Healthcare False Claims Act Recoveries for 2023
Posted 01/30/24
It was another big year for DOJ enforcement under the False Claims Act, the government's primary fraud-fighting tool. As usual, most of the recoveries were in the healthcare space with seven of the Top Ten recoveries involving various schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid. See our Top Ten FCA and Top Ten Healthcare FCA listings.
While healthcare recoveries dominated the Top Ten, two of the top five...
Donor and Legacy Admissions Policies at Undergraduate Institutions Face Scrutiny
Posted 08/2/23
The U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (DOE-OCR) has opened an investigation of Harvard College’s undergraduate donor and legacy admissions practices for discrimination based on race, under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program that receives federal financial assistance from DOE, and Harvard is a...
Thomas Jefferson University Pays $2.7 Million to Settle Student Loan Fraud Allegations
Posted 07/28/23
Thomas Jefferson University has agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle allegations concerning the misuse and improper retention of "primary care" student financial aid loans.
Education fraud encompasses traditional financial aid programs as well as specialty loan programs like the Primary Care Loan program at issue here. Congress established the Primary Care Loan program to address the nation’s shortage of primary...
Expanded Connecticut State False Claims Act is Win for Whistleblowers
Posted 07/7/23
Whistleblowers take note: the Connecticut State False Claims Act (CT FCA) has been significantly expanded beyond healthcare fraud claims. Historically, the CT FCA was limited to fraud on Medicaid and other programs within health and human services. The amended statute now reaches fraud across a variety of sectors, such as government contracting, education, employment, immigration, housing, mortgage and insurance...
Top Ten Financial and Healthcare Fraud Prison Sentences of 2021
Posted 01/28/22
Individuals involved in financial and healthcare fraud schemes face not just civil liability, but also criminal penalties – including prison time. In 2021, the Department of Justice obtained substantial prison sentences in a myriad of cases involving healthcare and financial frauds, many of which involved convictions of the type of fraudulent schemes that whistleblowers report. Whistleblowers play an essential role...
De Vos’s Education Department Quietly Granted For-Profit Mogul's Colleges Non-Profit Status, Reversing Obama Administration’s Decision
Posted 05/4/20
In the wake of scandals surrounding the for-profit college model, some institutions—and their executives—have sought to transition to non-profits. These conversions pose the concrete risk that taxpayers will be left subsidizing institutions trying to skirt federal regulations meant to protect students. As a result, the Obama Administration scrutinized them carefully, particularly where the rebranded non-profit...
Whistleblower Suit Revived by Third Circuit Despite Settlement in Related State Court Action
Posted 08/13/19
In United States ex rel. Jean Charte v. American Tutor, Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed dismissal of a whistleblower’s qui tam action under the False Claims Act, giving the whistleblower the right to pursue her claims. The district court had dismissed the action under state law res judicata principals, because the relator had settled a defamation action brought in state court against her by...
Whistleblowers Needed to Stop Secret Kickbacks, Bribes, Overcharging, and False Costs in E-Rate, Lifeline, Connect America, and Rural Healthcare programs
Posted 06/7/19
The FCC disburses billions of dollars every year for its massive Universal Service Fund (USF) and its laudable mission to promote telephone and internet access to all U.S. persons regardless of income and location. This massive pot of government money attracts a commensurate measure of opportunists seeking to defraud these well-meaning programs.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Proposed $700M Fix for Installed Foreign-Telecom Could Compound Fraud Related to Universal-Service-Fund Projects
Posted 05/31/19
Congress, the President, and the FCC are moving to restrict and phase out foreign-made telecommunications components seen as national security risks. While the president’s executive order of May 15, 2019 prohibits U.S. companies from buying foreign telecom, we have a huge problem: our systems already have large quantities of this equipment installed – antennas, radios, electronics, routers, services, etc. The...