Archive

False Claims Act Scores Continue to Pile Up

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team It was only two weeks ago when we reported on three major False Claims Act wins with the government taking home more than $90 million in fines and penalties and the whistleblowers getting a $10 million piece of the pie.  See Big Week for Whistleblowers.  Then there was last week’s $175 million pre-trebled jury verdict against guardrail maker Trinity Industries for lacing our...

Court Approves Statistical Sampling in False Claims Act Cases

By Jason Enzler A district court has upheld the use of statistical sampling in a False Claims Act case. As the court discussed in its decision, the use of sampling in False Claims Act litigation is not new. But it generally has been limited to establishing damages or to cases where the use of sampling is not contested. In United States ex rel. Martin v. Life Care Centers of America, Inc., however, the court...

SEC Announces Record $30M Whistleblower Award

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced an expected whistleblower award of more than $30 million.  It will be the largest award to date under the SEC whistleblower program established in 2012 under the Dodd-Frank Act.  It surpasses the $14 million award the SEC made to great fanfare roughly a year ago.  The new award will also be the fourth award to a...

D.C. Circuit Opines on What Constitutes Knowledge of Falsity Under the False Claims Act

By Jason Enzler The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion recently affirming a trial court’s grant of summary judgment against a qui tam relator.  The ruling in U.S. ex rel. Folliard v. Government Acquisitions, Inc. dealt with two issues: whether the lower court properly denied discovery of certain information and whether the defendant had “knowingly” submitted false claims...

Case Tests Tension Between False Claims Act and First Amendment

By Marlene Koury The much claimed but never proven tension between the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and First Amendment is being tested again in United States v. Millenium Pharmaceuticals Inc., currently pending in the Eastern District of California.  The whistleblower, a former pharmaceutical sales representative, alleges in his complaint that Millennium Pharmaceuticals illegally promoted the off-label use of...

Barker Decision Extends Attorney-Client Privilege Waiver to False Claims Act Cases

The attorney-client privilege is perhaps the most critical component of the attorney-client relationship.  As the Supreme Court declared in its landmark Upjohn decision, the privilege exists "to encourage full and frank communication between attorneys and their clients and thereby promote broader public interests in the observation of law and administration of justice."  As most would agree, without the privilege...

First Circuit Rules on Tax Deductibility of False Claims Act Settlements

By Jason Enzler The First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision recently on a matter of first impression for the circuit: whether courts may consider factors outside of settlement agreements in False Claims Act cases in order to determine whether portions of a settlement can be deducted from a defendant’s tax liability. In ruling that courts can indeed look beyond the agreements, the First Circuit in...

DOJ Catch of the Week -- Bank of America

This week's Department of Justice "catch of the week" goes to Bank of America.  Yesterday, the North Carolina based banking giant agreed to pay $16.65 billion to resolve federal and state mortgage fraud claims against the bank and its former and current subsidiaries, including Countrywide Financial Corporation and Merrill Lynch.  It is the largest civil settlement with a single entity in American history.   See 

Tagged in: Catch of the Week, FCA Federal, FIRREA, Housing and Mortgage Fraud,