Catch of the Week: San Francisco Garbage Companies Cop to Bribing Corrupt City Regulator in $36 Million Deal with Feds

Three San Francisco trash and recycling companies, all Recology, Inc. subsidiaries, have agreed to pay $36 million in a corruption scheme involving substantial bribes to former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammad Nuru. The SF Recology Group, which includes Recology San Francisco, Sunset Scavenger Company, and Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling Company agreed to a deferred prosecution deal on charges they conspired to commit honest services fraud in connection with...

September 8, 2021

Bayada Home Health Care, Inc. and related entities agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations of paying unlawful kickbacks that were initiated by a whistleblower action under the False Claims Act.  The government alleged that Bayada purchased two home health care agencies from a company that owned retirement communities in order to induce referrals from the seller to Bayada.  The whistleblower, David Freedman, was the director of strategic growth...

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...

August 27, 2021

Prithviraj “Roger” Bhikha, a former Senior Director of Global Supplier Management at Cisco Systems, Inc. was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $2.5 million to the IRS following his guilty plea on charges arising from his receipt of kickbacks from Cisco vendors, his creation of a front company that billed $10 million in services to Cisco while concealing his role, and his failure to report more...

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...

August 6, 2021

Maryland-based National Spine & Pain Center (NSPC) and its affiliate, Physical Medicine Associates, Ltd. (PMA), have agreed to pay $5.1 million to Medicare and enter into a non-prosecution agreement to settle a criminal fraud investigation.  In violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, NSPC and PMA had conspired with a now-defunct California-based genetics testing company called Proove Biosciences to have Proove pay illegal kickbacks to NSPC and PMA physicians in exchange for...

Catch of the Week: Waived Copayments and “Free” Glucometers Result in $160 Million Recovery in Whistleblower Action Against Previously-Barred Arriva Medical

Mail-order diabetes supply company Arriva Medical has agreed to pay $160 million to resolve a False Claims Act case filed in 2013 by a whistleblower who worked for ten months in one of the company’s call centers.  The government intervened in the whistleblower’s action in early 2019, and the case had been set for trial in June 2022. The settlement is the latest in a long string of actions against...

Catch of the Week: EEG Testing Company and Private-Investment Company to Pay $15.3M for Kickback and False-Billing Allegations

Whistleblowers came forward with six False Claims Act actions against a national EEG testing company and an investment company for allegedly paying kickbacks and falsely billing government healthcare programs.  Texas-based provider Alliance Family of Companies (now Stratus) and private investor Ancor Holdings together will pay $15.3 million to resolve the cases. For their actions in coming forward, two whistleblowers will be awarded $2.96 million. Free Interpretations of Test Reports Are...

July 21, 2021

Alliance Family of Companies LLC, a national electroencephalography testing company, and Ancor Holdings LP, a private insurance company, have agreed to pay a combined $15.3 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute.  According to a number of whistleblowers, Alliance provided free electroencephalography (EEG) interpretation reports to induce physician orders, caused physicians to submit false claims to the government, used inaccurate billing codes to generate...

July 20, 2021

Sage Consulting Group, Inc., and its president and owner Robert Pleghardt, agreed to pay $4.8 million to resolve claims that they paid kickbacks to two business, Wete & Company, Inc. and Index Systems, Inc., which were SBA certified as small businesses owned and operated by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, to permit Sage to represent that those companies would be performing at least 50% of the work as subcontractors on...