A long awaited Supreme Court decision that held major implications for False Claims Act litigants was handed down this week. On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court upheld a jury verdict that found State Farm Insurance Company (“State Farm”) defrauded a federal flood insurance program to avoid paying a homeowner’s…
Travis Thams, the whistleblower who filed a False Claims Act (“FCA”) lawsuit on behalf of the United States and 28 states, stands to receive a substantial portion of the $8 million settlement reached with his employer, Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (“CSI”). Thams was recruited to CSI to act as a District…
A teenager who died after receiving mental healthcare services from unlicensed and underqualified professionals is the impetus behind a False Claims Act lawsuit handled by Greene, LLP on behalf of the late Yarushka Rivera. The case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. The United States Office of the Solicitor…
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals of California revived Los Angeles County’s California False Claims Act case against Accent Builders, Inc. (“ABI”) and Superior Gunite Inc. (“SGI”), saying that the lower court should have ruled that the company’s requests for time extensions and change estimates constituted claims for $5 million…
Yesterday the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit revived the False Claims Act case against Universal Health Services Inc. (“Universal Health”) filed by two relators that alleges that the company improperly billed the government for mental health services provided by unsupervised and unqualified staff. Universal Health owns and operates…
Office Depot, Inc. has agreed to pay $68.5 million to settle a relator’s allegations that the Florida-based office supply and services retailer had defrauded all political subdivisions within the state of California that had purchased goods and services from Office Depot. More specifically, in violation of the California False Claims…
The Attorney General of Massachusetts announced today that Canton-based environmental services company National Water Main Cleaning Co. (“NWMC”) has agreed to pay more than $650,000 to settle allegations that it submitted fraudulent bills and records on multiple public contracts for sewer, storage tank, and catch basin cleaning, maintenance, and repair…
The state of California has decided to intervene in a relator’s complaint filed under the state’s False Claims Act alleging that London-based BP plc (“BP”) and its subsidiaries defrauded taxpayers by inflating natural gas prices under their contractual arrangements as the exclusive supplier to the state of California and its…
On June 27, a judge denied Sprint-Nextel Corporation’s (“Sprint”) motion to dismiss claims brought against it under the New York state False Claims Act and concluded that the complaint sufficiently alleged that Sprint had failed to both collect and pay more than $100 million in state sales tax since July…
Faced with allegations brought by the South Carolina Attorney General claiming that its drug Seroquel causes harmful side-effects and was promoted for off-label uses, AstraZeneca has abandoned a lawsuit against the South Carolina AG, agreeing instead to pay $26 million to resolve all of the state’s claims related to Seroquel.…