The Five Developments You Should Follow if You Want to Know What Antitrust Enforcers Are Doing in the Fields of Agriculture

While you may have noticed how expensive your recent trips to the supermarket have become, have you thought about why?  Is it because of the pandemic? Shipping problems?  Is it due to problems with the food supply? The short answer is “all of the above,” but, according to the Biden administration, antitrust abuses—including consolidation in the agriculture industry—could also be playing a major role in the hefty price increases for...

Whistleblower Reveals Facebook’s Lies: Will the SEC or Congress Act to Curtail Threats to Democracy and Teens from Social Media?

For anyone who cares about the future of liberal democracy, improving the mental health and well-being of children, ending the COVID-19 pandemic, or stopping drug cartels and human trafficking, the recent series in The Wall Street Journal titled “The Facebook Files” is a must-read.  Based on a trove of internal documents shared by a Facebook whistleblower, as well as interviews with numerous current and former Facebook employees, the WSJ series...

Payments News Update – October 1, 2021

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Alibaba Apps Start Offering WeChat Pay Option After Government Orders Reuters – September 28, 2021 China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has begun offering payment services from Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat on a number of its apps, after the government ordered major tech firms to stop blocking each other’s services and links. Local tech blog 36Kr reported on Tuesday that users of Alibaba’s food delivery app...

Rocking the Boats: Federal Government Tackles Competition in Maritime Shipping

The Federal government is taking a closer look at the maritime shipping industry—and for good reason. In 2000, the 10 largest shipping companies controlled just half of the world container shipping market.  Today, it’s more than 80%. As goods are increasingly manufactured in Asia and then transported to the United States, ocean carriers control a critical chokepoint.  This shift, combined with COVID-19, has left shippers with “fewer routes, fewer smaller...

Catch of the Week: Florida Lab Owner Pleads Guilty to $73 Million Telemedicine Fraud Scheme

Editor’s Note: For this week’s biggest story, the record $90 million settlement secured by a Constantine Cannon client against Sutter Health, read more here. Healthcare fraudsters have a track record of exploiting health crises for personal gain. The COVID-19 pandemic created new telemedicine opportunities for patients to receive care without having to see doctors in person. As expected, fraudsters seized on these telemedicine opportunities to line their own pockets. This...

Constantine Cannon Client Secures Record $90 Million False Claims Act Whistleblower Settlement with Sutter Health

Sutter Health settles closely watched whistleblower lawsuit alleging it violated the False Claims Act by submitting inaccurate and unsupported medical information on tens of thousands of patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage. SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 30, 2021) – Constantine Cannon, together with co-counsel Keller Grover and Kleiman Rajaram, announce the landmark $90 million False Claims Act settlement with Sutter Health on behalf of their whistleblower client, Kathy Ormsby, over allegations...

Catch of the Week: Florida Man Charged with Stealing Over $12 Million in Funds Slated for PPE

DOJ continues to make good on its promise to root out fraud in pandemic relief.  This week, a Florida resident Brian Sperber was indicted for defrauding hospitals and medical institutions out of more than $12 million dollars by falsely promising to deliver personal protective equipment to those purchasers. Sperber and his co-conspirators, who ran medical supply and logistics companies, took orders for N95 masks and medical gloves, but failed to...

Payments News Update – August 26, 2021

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Outgoing NY Governor Signs Bill to Limit Overdraft Practices at State-Chartered Banks Banking Dive – August 20, 2021 New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Thursday aimed at helping consumers avoid bank overdraft fees. The law requires New York-regulated banks to process checks in the order they are received, or from smallest to largest, to prevent customers from racking up fees for overdrawing their accounts....

Catch of the Week: Telemedicine Company Owner Charged in $784 Million Kickback Scheme

Underscoring the fraud risks associated with the government’s continued expansion and loosening of restrictions on telehealth, the U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that a grand jury in New Jersey has returned a superseding indictment against the Florida owner of multiple telemedicine companies, referred to by DOJ prosecutors as the Video Doctor Network, for allegedly participating in a massive Medicare fraud scheme. The “Video Doctor” Kickback Scheme Creaghan Harry, of...

New York’s Proposed Premerger Review Program Would Provide Much-Needed Protection for Consumers

New York State is on the precipice of unleashing a much-needed revolution in antitrust law. This blog recently covered New York’s proposal to amend the Donnelly Act (New York’s antitrust statute) to adopt a European-style abuse of dominance standard.  In this post, we analyze New York’s proposed mandatory premerger review program, which would complement the federal premerger notification program established by the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act, which provides the Federal Trade...