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...

June 30, 2021

Armed Forces Services Corporation (AFSC) d/b/a Magellan Federal has agreed to pay over $4.3 million to resolve its liability under the False Claims Act.  In a written disclosure to the U.S. Small Business Administration, AFSC revealed that a former executive had orchestrated kickbacks for himself and two other executives in exchange for awarding subcontractors work on federal contracts.  USAO EDVA

June 25, 2021

Multinational telecommunications and internet service provider Level 3 Communications, LLC has agreed to pay over $12.7 million to resolve claims a former employee brought under the False Claims Act, alleging violations of the Anti-Kickback Act, False Claims Act, and Procurement Integrity Act.  Under a contract with the General Services Administration, Level 3 allegedly accepted kickbacks from subcontractors MSO Tech, Inc. and P.V.S. Inc. in exchange for steering work to them. ...

Catch of the Week: a Medley of Contracting Fraud in Telecom

This week’s Catch of the Week goes to Level 3 Communications, which agreed to pay $12.7M to resolve claims that the company paid kickbacks paid to former Level 3 officials in return for favorable treatment to subcontractors in connection with government contracts, improperly obtained competitive bid information of competitors, and misstated compliance with woman-owned small business subcontracting requirements to receive more favorable contracting treatment. Specifically, Level 3, a multinational telecommunications...

Book Review: “Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty,” by Patrick Radden Keefe

Last October, Purdue Pharma, the inventor, manufacturer, and marketer of Oxycontin, the drug at the center of the opioid crisis, reached a massive healthcare fraud settlement with the Department of Justice. The Department advertised the settlement as an $8.3 billion dollar recovery, which would make it one of the largest healthcare fraud settlements in history. In his book Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe explores the history of the Sacklers,...

May 28, 2021

Erik Santos of Georgia was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison following his guilty plea on healthcare fraud charges.  Santos conspired with Florida compounding pharmacy Patient Care America and others to recruit Tricare beneficiaries to fill prescriptions for expensive, supposedly tailor-made, compounded medications that consisted of little more than common pain or scar creams, but came with price tags as high as $10,000-$15,000 per month.  The beneficiaries did...

DOJ Lowers The Boom On COVID-19 Healthcare Scams, Again

Hey, fraudsters, did you hear?  There was a global pandemic, so the government pumped trillions of dollars into the economy.  Probably a good time to get a piece of the cut, you ask?  They’ll never find out, right?  So many ways to grift! Well, not so much.  From the start, the cops on the beat, led by the United States Department of Justice, have screamed from the rooftops:  “Don’t do...

Private-Equity Red Flags Signal Potential False Claims Act Liability

Private equity (PE) firms that manage healthcare entities have further reason to take note of the growing record of exposure for False Claims Act (FCA) liability. Martino-Fleming Case In the latest shot across the bow, the PE firm, a majority shareholder of a for-profit mental-health provider, knew about the false claims and played a sufficiently active role in operations potentially to have caused them. Evidence supporting these facts against PE...

May 19, 2021

In one of the first settlements to resolve allegations under both the False Claims Act and the Open Payments Program (formerly the “Sunshine Act”), French medical device manufacturer Medicrea International and its American affiliate, Medicrea USA Inc., have agreed to pay $2 million to resolve whistleblower Dory Frain’s allegations that the companies violated the Anti-Kickback Statute while entertaining U.S.-based physicians at a conference in France in 2013.  The settlement also...

CFTC: Looking for a Few Good Whistleblowers

When it comes to their respective whistleblower programs, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) does not get the same respect or attention the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does.  That is largely because the SEC Whistleblower Program has been an unparalleled success, with whistleblower awards being made (and highly promoted) virtually every week or two.  Last year was a record-breaking year for the program, which included a blockbuster $114 million...