News

Whistleblower litigation under the False Claims Act often involves fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims for prescriptions drugs. Sometimes the false claims are made by the drug manufacturer that, for example, markets a drug for an off-label use. Other times, the false claims are made at the far end of the supply chain, by a pharmacy that finds a way to bilk the taxpayers out of millions...

Whistleblowers play a vital role in putting an end to Medicare fraud schemes like the one in New York for which a Brooklyn board-certified colorectal surgeon was recently sentenced to prison. Medicare fraud costs everyone money. Taxpayers foot the bill for the Medicare programs that are cheated in health care fraud scams.

Every year, whistleblowers report unscrupulous health care providers who cheat Medicare and the American taxpayers out of millions of dollars. Many providers simply bill Medicare for services they never provided. Some create elaborate phony records to back up their non-existent services. Others don’t even bother with that.

The 2012 news was full of reports of outrageous incidents of Medicaid fraud by Texas dentists and orthodontists whose practices are owned and operated by private-equity dental chains. These dentists often do not run their own practices. Instead, they work for a for-profit business owned by investors who are only concerned about the bottom line. Rather than making their own decisions about the...

The Department of Justice has resolved a False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuit with APTx Vehicle Systems Limited, a British contractor alleged to have entered into an $8.4 million contract involving the procurement of 51 vehicles for the Iraqi Police Authority. Originally, the contract was awarded to another contractor, which then subcontracted with APTx for the procurement in a $5.7...

A whistleblower with knowledge of a Medicare fraud scheme has the power to end the fraud by filing a lawsuit against the wrongdoers under the False Claims Act. Many times, such cases — also called qui tam cases — involve allegations of Medicare fraud in which a medical provider bills the public health program for services that never took place.

Charles Agbu, 58, a church pastor near Los Angeles, California has pleaded guilty in an $11 million Medicare fraud scam involving fraudulent medical clinics, doctors, and recruiters soliciting patients right off the street. The Department of Justice leveled the following allegations against Agbu:

The church pastor ran a fraudulent durable medical equipment (DME) supply company in...

The U.S. government has settled False Claims Act allegations against W.W. Grainger Inc., a national hardware distributor with headquarters in Illinois. Grainger consented to pay the government $70 million. The Department of Justice made the following allegations against Grainger:

Grainger contracted to sell supplies and hardware products to various government customers by means of the...

Education Holdings Inc. has reached a $10 million settlement with the U.S. government to resolve charges that the education company violated the federal False Claim Act, according to the Corporate Crime Reporter. The alleged misconduct was engaged in by The Princeton Review, which was owned by Education Holdings Inc. until May 2012 when the company was sold to Charlesbank Capital...

State and federal funding programs are essential to our nation’s schools, higher-education institutions, and research facilities. Tax dollars that make those programs possible should be spent on creating and maintaining a better educated population. Our taxes should not be spent on padding the bank accounts of unscrupulous education contractors, making unnecessary student loans, or funding...