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Stephen M. Byers is a partner in the firm's White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement Group and serves on the group's steering committee. He is also a member of the firm's Government Contracts Group and E-Discovery & Information Management Group. Mr. Byers's practice involves counseling and representation of corporate and individual clients in all phases of white collar criminal and related civil matters, including: internal corporate investigations; federal grand jury, inspector general, civil enforcement and congressional investigations; and trials and appeals.

Mr. Byers's practice focuses on matters involving procurement fraud, health care fraud and abuse, trade secrets theft, foreign bribery, computer crimes and cybersecurity, and antitrust conspiracies. He has extensive experience with the federal False Claims Act and qui tam litigation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Economic Espionage Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In addition to defense of government investigations and prosecutions, Mr. Byers has represented corporate victims of trade secrets theft, cybercrime, and other offenses. For example, he represented a Fortune 100 U.S. company in parallel civil and criminal proceedings that resulted in a $275 million criminal restitution order against a foreign competitor upon its conviction for trade secrets theft.

On August 8, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced a $6.3 million False Claims Act settlement with West Coast Dental Administrative Services LLC (formerly West Coast Dental Services Inc.) and its founders and former owners due to seven improper second-draw Paycheck Protection Program loans received by West Coast Dental and affiliated dental offices. Continue Reading California Dental Offices Settle FCA Allegations Regarding Second-Draw PPP Loans for $6.3M

On August 5, 2024, in United States ex rel. Relator LLC v. Howard D. Kootstra and Golden Empire Mortgage, Inc., Case No. 1:22-cv-00924-TLN-CDB (E.D. Cal.), the District Court for the Eastern District of California granted a motion to dismiss allegations that a mortgage lender made false or fraudulent statements on its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application in violation of the False Claims Act where the relator could not overcome the FCA’s public disclosure bar.Continue Reading FCA Complaint Based on PPP Information Pulled from PandemicOversight.gov Website Barred

The federal government’s renewed focus on corporate misconduct and the recent expansion of its disclosure and whistleblower policies have thrust corporate criminal liability into the spotlight. It may come as no surprise that corporations are legal persons capable of committing crimes, but the scope of potential criminal liability for corporations is broader than one may realize.Continue Reading Criminal Enforcement Considerations for Gov’t Contractors

On June 26, 2024, a 6-3 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the scope of federal bribery law by ruling that 18 U.S.C. § 666 does not cover gratuities provided to officials for past acts. The Court held that Section 666, which outlaws bribery of state and local officials when federal funds are involved, does not extend to “gratuities” that follow an official act, in large part because regulation of such gifts is a matter of state and local law. Continue Reading Supreme Court Rules Gratuity Insufficient For Conviction Under Federal Bribery Law

A recently-announced False Claims Act (FCA) settlement illustrates how government contractors and other FCA defendants can take advantage of a Department of Justice (DOJ) policy that rewards voluntary self-disclosure to, and subsequent cooperation with, the government.Continue Reading False Claims Act Settlement Illustrates Value of Disclosure and Cooperation

A recent decision in a non-intervened qui tam suit in the Northern District of Georgia provides an example of a defendant threading the needle to avoid dismissal of its counterclaims despite those counterclaims arguably implicating the conduct that the relator alleged violated the False Claims Act (FCA). It also stands as a rare instance where a company’s counterclaims against an FCA relator have survived early court scrutiny and, as such, provides FCA defendants with a potential strategy to combat opportunistic relators.Continue Reading Counterclaims Against Compliance-Officer-Turned-Relator Survive Motion to Dismiss

Criminal Investigations and the False Claims Act

In this episode, Steve Byers, Jason Crawford, and Agustin Orozco discuss the intersection between False Claims Act investigations and parallel criminal proceedings. “Let’s Talk FCA” is Crowell & Moring’s podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.

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On October 4, 2023, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Lisa O. Monaco announced the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) new safe harbor policy for voluntary self-disclosures made in connection with mergers and acquisitions (Safe Harbor Policy).  Following other announcements from DOJ over the past two years aimed at encouraging voluntary self-disclosures, the Safe Harbor Policy was adopted because DOJ does not want to “discourage companies with effective compliance programs from lawfully acquiring companies with ineffective compliance programs.”  Through this new policy, DOJ is aiming to incentivize acquirers to timely disclose misconduct discovered during the M&A process (including pre-closing diligence and post-closing integration).Continue Reading DOJ Announces Safe Harbor for Acquirers Who Disclose Pre-Acquisition Misconduct

A False Claims Act (FCA) settlement recently announced by the U.S. Department of Justice stands at the intersection of two evolving trends:  DOJ’s increasing focus on cybersecurity lapses by government contractors as part of its Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, and DOJ policies incentivizing corporations to voluntarily self-disclose violations of federal law.

On September 5, 2023, DOJ announced a $4 million settlement with Verizon Business Network Services LLC (Verizon) addressing allegations that Verizon violated the FCA because certain telecommunications services it provided to federal agencies under its General Services Administration (GSA) contracts did not comply with applicable cybersecurity requirements, namely the Office of Management and Budget’s Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative.  DOJ specifically alleged that Verizon’s Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Service (MTIPS)—an information technology service that allows federal agencies to securely connect to public internet and external networks—did not comply with three security controls in the Department of Homeland Security’s TIC Reference Architecture Document, including a control that required the use of FIPS 140-2 validated cryptography.  The Verizon settlement represents the latest example of DOJ’s continued focus on cybersecurity cases, a trend that we believe will only continue to escalate going forward.Continue Reading Civil Cyber-Fraud Settlement Highlights Potential for Cooperation Credit

The continual push and pull between the courts and Congress over the contours of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) has once again spawned proposed legislation unfavorable to FCA defendants, this time poised to curtail defense arguments that continued government payment of claims in the face of alleged noncompliance with contractual or other legal requirements demonstrates a lack of materiality.

On July 25, 2023, a bipartisan group of senators proposed legislation entitled the “False Claims Act Amendments of 2023.”  Spearheaded by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the principal author of the 1986 FCA amendments, the bill purportedly attempts to close certain FCA defense “loopholes” left open by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar, 579 U.S. 176 (2016) (“Escobar”).  Senator Grassley has been an outspoken critic of more recent FCA judicial developments, which he deems a gradual curbing of the power of the “single greatest tool in the fight against fraud.”  These newest proposed amendments are another example of Grassley’s advocacy for stronger and more rigid fraud enforcement than courts have been willing to impose based on the text of the FCA. Continue Reading He’s a Material Guy in a Material World: Senator Grassley Proposes FCA Amendments to Weaken Materiality Defense Where Government Pays Despite Knowledge of Non-Compliance