False Claims Act

The U.S. government has intervened in a lawsuit against Fluor Hanford Inc. and its parent company, Fluor Corporation, in the U.S.

Blackstone Medical Inc., a manufacturer of medical devices, notably spinal implants and spinal surgery products, will pay $30 million to settle a federal investigation of alleged violations of the False Claims Act.
 

Connecticut-based Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to pay $95 million to resolve allegations relating to the improper promotion of the stroke-prevention drug Aggrenox, the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) drugs Atrovent and Combivent, and the hypertension drug Micardis.  
 

The federal government has intervened and filed a complaint against the private, for-profit chain of schools, ATI Enterprises Inc., which is based in North Richland, Texas.   ATI Enterprises, Inc., which does business as ATI Technical Training Center, ATI Career Training Center and ATI Career Training, operates career college campuses in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
 

The U.S. government has joined a whistleblower lawsuit against The Gallup Organization that originally was filed by Michael Lindley, a former Gallup employee, who alleged that Gallup violated the False Claims Act by making false claims for payment under contracts with the U.S. Mint, the State Department, and other federal agencies to provide polling services for various government programs.
 

Many people have criticized federal prosecutors for being insufficiently aggressive in bringing criminal charges against individuals and corporations for actions that led to the Financial Crisis. Should the federal government’s civil frauds record also be criticized?

Deutsche Bank and a number of affiliates have settled a False Claims Act suit for over $200 million that alleged that they had made repeated false certifications to the federal Housing and Urban Development in connection with residential mortgage origination practices since 2007. 

Direct Resource Inc. sells a variety of products to U.S. agencies, including office supplies. Its contracts with the General Services Administration require that all products sold to the U.S. government be manufactured in one of a list of designated countries deemed to trade fairly with the United States.             

McKesson Corporation, a large drug wholesaler, has agreed to pay the federal government more than $190 million to resolve claims that it violated the False Claims Act by reporting inflated pricing information for a large number of prescription drugs, causing Medicaid to overpay for those drugs. 

Walgreens, the Illinois-based corporation that operates a national retail pharmacy chain, has paid the United States and participating states $7.9 million to resolve allegations that Walgreens violated the False Claims Act.