Crowell & Moring recently achieved two substantial victories for its client, Academi Training Center LLC (“ACADEMI”) in a qui tam False Claims Act case in the Eastern District of Virginia . The qui tam relators accused ACADEMI of billing for personnel who did not serve in the labor categories in which they were billed and … Continue Reading
On May 15-16, 2013, Crowell & Moring is hosting its annual Ounce of Prevention Seminar (OOPS). This year’s program, entitled Weathering the Rough Seas of Regulation, will once again provide the government contract community with a comprehensive review of the latest developments in federal contracting. In the morning session on May 16, attorneys Andy Liu, Robert … Continue Reading
A False Claims Act (“FCA”) complaint filed by John McLain (not to be confused with the main character of the Die Hard series sharing the same name) was recently dismissed for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) and failure to plead fraud with particularity under Rule 9(b). See United … Continue Reading
Last week, the Fourth Circuit issued a decision that exposes government contractors to False Claims Act lawsuits based on allegations which were previously considered untimely and which had already been the subject of prior qui tam action. In U.S. ex rel. Carter v. Halliburton Co. (Mar. 18, 2013), the panel held that the Wartime Suspension … Continue Reading
Complaints alleging violations of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) must satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), which requires the government or qui tam relator to “state with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud.” In order to ferret out fishing expeditions, many courts have held that Rule 9(b) requires plaintiffs to allege the who, what, when, … Continue Reading
In a series of posts (Part 1), I’m examining the Department of Justice’s annual Summary of False Claims Act cases and recoveries to see what these statistics might reveal about FCA enforcement trends. In the first post, we looked at the rising number of new FCA matters that were filed last year. But who gets … Continue Reading
Less than a week before most people departed for December holidays, the Department of Justice posted to its website its annual summary of False Claims Act matters and recoveries. Among other data points, the FY 2012 summary reports the number of new FCA "matters" that were filed or opened, both by qui tam relators and … Continue Reading
A recent case from the District of Massachusetts illustrates how the False Claims Act may be stretched to cover companies that do not even submit claims to the government. In U.S. ex rel. Ge v. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Nos. 10-11043-FDS, 11-10343-FDS (D. Mass. Nov. 1, 2012), the relator alleged that Takeda Pharmaceuticals violated the FCA … Continue Reading
FCA Amendments Congress enacted the Fraud Enforcement And Recovery Act (FERA) of 2009 to broaden the language of the False Claims Act to impose liability on anyone who knowingly uses "a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim." 31 U.S.C. § 3729(a)(2). It made this change to legislatively overrule the Supreme … Continue Reading
Several weeks ago, we wrote about the case of United States ex rel. Baker v. Community Health Sys., Inc, in which a magistrate judge recommended that the government be sanctioned for failing to preserve key evidence in a False Claims Act case. That recommendation was recently adopted in its entirety over the government’s objections by the … Continue Reading
A relator filing a qui tam complaint under the False Claims Act must file it under seal, see 31 U.S.C. 3739(b)(2), giving the government an opportunity to investigate the allegations. While the initial sealing period lasts 60 days, the government routinely receives extensions, which means that FCA cases often stay under seal for months, if … Continue Reading
The Fifth Circuit held that federal government employees can bring whistleblower suits under the False Claims Act (FCA), even when it is their job to investigate fraud. The whistleblowers in the case, Little v. Shell Exploration & Production Co., alleged that Shell defrauded the federal government of millions of dollars in royalties by taking improper … Continue Reading
On Thursday, June 14 at 1 p.m. (Eastern time), Crowell & Moring government contracts and false claims act attorneys Bob Rhoad and Dalal Hasan will be conducting a webinar entitled “False Claims Act: Key Provisions and Current Trends in Compliance and Enforcement” on behalf of L2 Federal Resources. During this 90-minute webinar, Bob and Dalal will provide … Continue Reading
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently issued a DOJ-wide memorandum urging federal government attorneys to coordinate when conducting parallel civil, criminal, regulatory and administrative proceedings. Holder wrote that parallel criminal and civil investigations would deter future offenses and maintain program integrity, while also acting to “secure the full range of the government’s remedies (including incarceration, … Continue Reading
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in U.S. ex rel. Bunk v. Birkart Globistics GmbH & Co., et al. (a qui tam case in which the government did not intervene) declined to impose statutory penalties on the jury’s finding of 9,136 false claims (invoices submitted by defendants under a … Continue Reading
The U.S. Department of Justice reported this week that it recovered $5.6 billion in criminal and civil fraud payments in fiscal year 2011, including more than $3 billion under the civil False Claims Act. The fraud recoveries set a one-year record for DOJ; the FCA recoveries capped a record-setting three-year period during which DOJ recovered … Continue Reading
GSA has now topped the $128 million settlement it reached in 2009 with NetApp – then the largest settlement reached in an FCA action against a GSA Schedule contractor – by settling with Oracle Corporation and Oracle America Inc. this past week in the amount of $199.5 million plus interest. The settlement resolves an FCA action … Continue Reading
The Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. §552, is intended to uphold the principles of transparency and open government, so that citizens can assess government accountability and actions. Since its enactment in 1966, FOIA has also been used by companies to obtain information about their competitors’ prices and contract performance, as well as by … Continue Reading
Two years ago, GSA reached a $128 million settlement with Network Appliance, now known as NetApp Inc., based on a whistleblower False Claims Act (“FCA”) suit that alleged the company had failed to comply with the Price Reduction Clause of the contract. The settlement amount was, and continues to be, the largest Schedule contract fraud settlement … Continue Reading
Professional whistleblower Brady Folliard’s most recent False Claims Act suit against technology vendors alleging violations of the Trade Agreements Act (“TAA”) has survived a motion to dismiss with respect to two defendants (GovPlace and Government Acquisitions, Inc.), but otherwise has been dismissed for the other six defendants (which include Hewlett Packard and GTSI Corporation). In … Continue Reading
On June 2, 2011, the Department of Justice (“DoJ”) announced a $2.7 million settlement of a False Claims Act (“FCA”) case brought against Ultralife Corporation (“Ultralife”). The complaint alleges that Ultralife violated the FCA through the submission of false claims based on “defective pricing” under three contracts with the U.S. Army to provide lithium-manganese dioxide non-rechargeable … Continue Reading
On Monday, May 16 the U.S. Supreme Court held that a federal agency’s written response to a FOIA request for records constitutes a “report” within the meaning of the public disclosure bar in the False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq. (See Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex rel Kirk). Reversing … Continue Reading
Home Depot was sued in 2008 by two whistleblowers claiming that the company had violated the False Claims Act by selling products that did not comply with the Trade Agreements Act (“TAA”) to the U.S. government through its GSA Schedule contract. The United States has not intervened in the case. Home Depot recently moved for reconsideration of … Continue Reading
