Whistleblower Case

EMC - Procurement Fraud/Education ($95.5 million)

A Constantine Cannon attorney represented two whistleblowers in a False Claims Act case alleging Education Management Corporation violated the recruiter incentive compensation ban, enrolling students regardless of whether they were suitable candidates.  In November 2015, the company agreed to pay $95.5 million to settle the action, the largest False Claims Act settlement to date involving the Department of Education.  The two whistleblowers (along with several others) received a whistleblower award of $11.3 million.  Read more -- Business Insider, DOJ, PR Newswire, CC.

October 21, 2015

14 states, as well as the District of Columbia and the cities of Chicago and New York, reached a $4 million settlement with UPS, resolving allegations brought by a whistleblower that that certain UPS employees recorded inaccurate delivery times on packages sent by governmental customers through next-day delivery services, resulting in premium-priced packages that appeared to have been delivered by their guaranteed commitment times when they had not been timely delivered. The lawsuit also alleged that certain UPS employees applied inapplicable or inappropriate exception codes to excuse late next-day packages, including claims of weather emergencies despite sunny conditions. As a result, the governmental customers were unable to claim or receive refunds for the late deliveries under the terms of their contracts. FL; IL; NY; MA; NM; VA

October 21, 2015

United Parcel Service has agreed to pay $4 million to resolve allegations that the company violated the false claims acts of 14 states, New York City, Washington D.C., and Chicago.  Under contracts at issue between UPS and the government, UPS guaranteed delivery of packages by certain specified times the following day. The investigation began after a UPS employee filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit in Virginia alleging that a practice of falsifying package arrival times and logging in phony reasons for late arrivals went on company-wide. The UPS employee alleged that, in some cases, bogus exception codes excusing late deliveries were entered into the tracking system before UPS drivers had even arrived at locations where cumbersome security procedures and other delays had purportedly occurred. The state settlement follows an earlier $25 million settlement with the federal government.  NJ; NY

October 14, 2015

The Maryland Attorney General announced a $13.5 million settlement with NuVasive, Inc, resolving allegations brought in a whistleblower suit that the California medical device company improperly marketed its spine surgery products and provided kickbacks to doctors through speaking fees and other payments. MD

October 7, 2015

Constantine Cannon partner Mary Inman quoted in American Lawyer on the jury deliberations in the Aseracare hospice whistleblower lawsuit.  Click here for more.