FCA Federal
This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to the federal False Claims Act. You may also be interested in the following pages:
Rose Cancer Center - Healthcare Fraud ($5.7 million)
Constantine Cannon represented a whistleblower in a False Claims Act case alleging Mississippi-based Rose Cancer Center used unqualified technicians performing bone marrow biopsies, diluted chemotherapy drugs, and falsified patient records to conceal the clinic’s fraudulent Medicare billings. The physician who owned and ran the practice plead guilty to various Medicare fraud violations, forfeited $5.7 million, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In August 2014, our client (along with three other whistleblowers) received a whistleblower award of $525,000 from the government's recovery. Read more -- Clarion Ledger, CC.September 12, 2014
Wall Street Journal, Legal Intelligencer, FiercePharma, FierceVaccines, and Law 360 report on Constantine Cannon's success in defeating a motion to dismiss its whistleblower lawsuit against Merck regarding Merck's mumps vaccine.D.C. Circuit Opines on What Constitutes Knowledge of Falsity Under the False Claims Act
Posted 09/11/14
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
Posted 09/4/14
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
Posted 09/4/14
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
Posted 08/28/14
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
Posted 08/22/14
Tagged in: Catch of the Week, FCA Federal, FIRREA, Housing and Mortgage Fraud,
DOJ Catch of the Week – Vascular Solutions
Posted 08/1/14
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
This week's Department of Justice "catch of the week" goes to Vascular Solutions Inc (VSI). On Monday, the Minneapolis-based medical device maker agreed to pay $520,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by marketing a product for sealing veins without FDA approval. Specifically, the government charged that VSI marketed and sold its "Vari-Lase...
“Modest” Changes, or All-Out Assault on the False Claims Act?
Posted 07/31/14
By Jason Enzler
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing yesterday with the innocuous title “Oversight of the False Claims Act.” At issue was a set of proposed changes to the law offered by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (“ILR”). According to an ILR representative’s testimony, the amendments would be “modest” and focused on correcting “flaws” and improving the “effectiveness”...