ABOUT:

About Dorsey’s FCA Now

The False Claims Act is the government’s principal tool for addressing fraud in contracting, healthcare, mortgage lending, and grant administration. FCA Now provides timely developments about the law, enforcement trends, and other insights from Dorsey’s proven FCA litigators.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Disclaimer

By accessing the FCA Now blog, you are requesting information. The information you are requesting is not legal advice, advertising or solicitation. Transmission and receipt of the materials on the blog do not constitute legal advice, establish an attorney-client relationship, or create any duty of Dorsey to any reader. An attorney-client relationship with Dorsey may be established only by an engagement letter signed by a Dorsey lawyer. Information sent to Dorsey by persons who are not clients of the firm is not subject to any duty of confidentiality on the part of the firm.

The information on the blog may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date, and may not reflect the most current legal developments. The opinions expressed on the blog are the opinions of the authors only and not those of Dorsey.

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING.
Some of the content on this blog is considered Attorney Advertising under the applicable rules of certain states. Results depend on a number of factors unique to each matter. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

PRIVACY POLICY STATEMENT
The privacy policy statement is set out at Data Privacy | Dorsey.

FCA NOW

Government Solutions & Investigations Practice Group

Procedure / Relators

1 Dec, 2015

New York Trial Court Dismisses FCA Tax Case against Vanguard; Determines Relator Violated Confidentiality Provisions of State Attorney Ethics Rules

On November 13, 2015, the New York State Supreme Court dismissed a qui tam action brought under New York State Finance Law §§ 187-194 (“False Claims Act”) against The Vanguard Group Inc., The Vanguard Group of Mutual Funds, and Vanguard Marketing Corporation (collectively, “Vanguard”) by a former Vanguard in-house tax attorney because the Court found that plaintiff had improperly relied on confidential information obtained through...

False Statement / Scienter

18 Nov, 2015

District Court Rejects FCA Claim Against Healthcare Provider That Submitted False Claims But Did So Without Necessary Mental State

Healthcare provider Fresenius Medical Care North America claimed victory in a False Claims Act (“FCA”) lawsuit recently when a federal district court ruled that there was no evidence that its practice of billing for “overfill” medications was anything more than negligent, and therefore did not satisfy the knowledge requirement of the FCA. On October 30, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of...

Corporate Integrity Agreement / Settlements / Stark Law

4 Nov, 2015

Tuomey Settles, Post-Judgment, Alleged Violations of FCA and Stark Law

The Department of Justice and Tuomey Healthcare have announced a $72.4 million settlement in a lawsuit that the DOJ touts as “another achievement for the [DOJ and DHS] Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative.” The settlement follows a 2013 trial in which a jury found Tuomey had violated the False Claims Act and Stark Law by filing more than 21,000 false...

Intervention / Procedure / Settlements

29 Oct, 2015

Eighth Circuit Vacates Relators’ FCA Settlement Recovery; Concludes that the FCA “Allows Relators to Recover a Percentage of the Proceeds of the Settlement of ‘the Claim’ Brought by the Relators, and Only That Claim”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently vacated an award of settlement proceeds to relators of several related qui tam actions because the district court failed to make factual findings as to whether the government’s settlement with one of the defendants was based on claims that factually overlapped with the claims brought by the relators. Rille v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, et al., No....

False Statement / Procedure

9 Oct, 2015

Supreme Court Asked To Clarify Application of Rule 9(b) in FCA Cases

On September 21, 2015, counsel for AT&T, Inc., and other telecommunications providers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a circuit split over what relators asserting FCA claims must do to meet Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b)’s requirement of particularity. Pet. for a Writ of Cert., AT&T, Inc. v. United States of America ex rel. Heath, No. 15-363 (Sept. 21, 2015). Under the Universal...

Express Certification / False Statement / Procedure

30 Sep, 2015

Utah Court Dismisses False-Certification Case Alleging Submission of False Certificates of Conformance

On September 22, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah dismissed a qui tam complaint brought against Triumph Gear Systems, Inc. (“TGS”) and its parent company Triumph Group, Inc. (“Triumph”).   In an opinion issued by District Judge Dale A. Kimball, the Court found that the complaint failed at the “most basic level” to identify a single false claim submitted to the government....

False Statement / Persons subject to FCA

26 Sep, 2015

Judge Dismisses FCA Claim Against City of Chicago; Concludes that “Subsequent Nonperformance of a Future Commitment” Was Not a Falsehood Under FCA

On September 16, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Chicago dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) case against the City of Chicago, because the qui tam complaint did not satisfy the relevant pleading standard.   In an opinion issued by District Judge Andrea Wood, the court found that the complaint failed to allege facts with particularity as required under Federal Rule of...

False Statement / Scienter

22 Sep, 2015

Southern District of New York Opinion Provides Guidance on Satisfying Scienter Requirement Under False Claims Act

Not every mistake or negligent act gives rise to liability under the False Claims Act. That principle has long been central to the FCA. But the dividing line–  between making a mistake, on the one hand, and “knowingly” or “recklessly” submitting a false claim, on the other–can be murky. In United States ex Rel Kirk v. Schindler Elevator Corp., No. 05-cv-2917, 2015 WL 5296714 (S.D.N.Y....

Corporate Integrity Agreement / Enforcement / False Statement

21 Sep, 2015

New Justice Department Directive Underscores Focus on Individuals—and Importance of Cooperation—in False Claims Act Investigations

In a recent memorandum issued to Main Justice litigating components and United States Attorney’s offices nationwide, Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillan Yates emphasized that “fighting corporate fraud and other misconduct” remains a top priority for the Department and the Federal government’s vow to seek “individual accountability for corporate wrongdoing.” The memorandum, which appears to be designed to respond to criticism regarding the Department’s response to...

Insurance Coverage

9 Sep, 2015

Fifth Circuit Concludes That FCA Claim Was Not Covered By Insurance Policy

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently rejected a shipbuilder’s claim against its insurance company seeking defense and indemnification from a False Claims Act suit. See XL Spec. Ins. Co. v. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., No. 14-31283, 2015 WL 5052504, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 15160 (5th Cir. Aug. 27, 2015). Over a decade ago, shipbuilder Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. retrofitted patrol boats under contract...