Grant and Research Fraud
This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to fraud in government grant and research programs. You may also be interested in the following pages:
September 21, 2023
Yale University and Dr. John Krystal—who was employed at Yale in multiple roles, including as a psychiatry professor and chair with the School of Medicine, and as a clinical psychiatrist with research responsibilities at the VA Medical Center—has agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve their liability under the False Claims Act. According to the government, Dr. Krystal and four co-inventors failed to share royalties with the VA for several patents they obtained for discovering that depression and suicidal ideation could be treated with intranasal ketamine. Yale and Dr. Krystal began receiving the royalties in 2015, and the royalties now total more than $3 million. DOJDecember 21, 2022
Biotechnology companies iSense, LLC and Specific Diagnostics, Inc., together with their founder Paul Andrew Rhodes, will pay a total of $10.1 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims under grants from the DOD and HHS. The government alleged that the firms improperly billed for costs incurred by another business, billed for compensation in excess of authorized federal limits, backdated services and cost-sharing agreements, and knowingly presented a backdated agreement to the government. USAO NDCalOctober 21, 2021
Boulder, Colorado nonprofit The Center for Severe Weather Research paid $2.4 million to resolve allegations of fraud in federal grants received from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and NOAA. CSWR was alleged to have improperly requested drawdowns from federal grants for expenses it had not incurred, and to have improperly retained interest accrued on federal funds received but not yet needed. In addition, two CSWR principles, Ling Chan and Joshua Wurman, agreed to pay $203,776 to resolve allegations that they improperly obtained payments for ineligible expenses, including rental payment for CSWR offices in their personal residence. USAO COSeptember 21, 2021
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), East Carolina University (ECU), and the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service (NCCV), have agreed to pay a combined $842,500 to resolve allegations of fraud in connection with the AmeriCorps program. An investigation by the United States had found that UNC-CH, ECU, and NCCV failed to comply with multiple grant requirements and regulations, including falsely certifying the service hours worked by AmeriCorps members, falsely certifying employee salaries required to administer the program, and failing to maintain proper internal controls. USAO EDNCSeptember 1, 2021
The Van Andel Research Institute has agreed to pay $1.1 million to resolve allegations of failing to disclose foreign ties in awards granted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in violation of the False Claims Act. The foreign ties included foreign-sourced research samples and funding by the Chinese government. In December 2019, the institute settled similar claims for $5.5 million. With this second settlement, specific conditions have now been imposed on the remainder of the institute’s NIH grants, including a requirement that an executive-level manager personally certify to disclosures until October 2022. USAO WDMIAugust 26, 2021
Nonprofit organization the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, its former CEO Tiffany Carr, and other former officers and directors, have entered into a settlement agreement with the State of Florida to pay $5 million to resolve civil claims arising from the alleged misuse of state grant funds and excessive compensation to Carr. The entity will be dissolved. FLPartner Mary Inman Speaks about Research Fraud with Science Whistleblower Dr. Elisabeth Bik at the HCCA’s Research Compliance Conference
Posted 07/23/21
Catch of the Week: Florida Department of Children and Families Pays $17.5 Million to Resolve Alleged SNAP Fraud
Posted 07/16/21
