Settling party Sunham Home Fashions, LLC (“Sunham”) and citizen enforcer Russell Brimer entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on March 22, 2013, resolving Brimer’s allegations that Sunham sold vinyl/PVC travel cases containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) and the heavy metal lead in the State of California...
Tennessee-based Grace Healthcare LLC and its affiliate Grace Ancillary Services LLC (collectively, Grace) have agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle allegations that they knowingly submitted false claims to the Medicare and TennCare/Medicaid programs for unnecessary rehabilitation therapy, the Department of Justice announced last week.
The suit alleged that from 2007 to 2011,...
Colorado-based CH2M Hill Hanford Group (CHG) and its parent company CH2M Hill Companies Ltd. (CH2M Hill) admitted to criminal conduct when CHG engaged in years of widespread time card fraud on the U.S. Department of Energy. Between 1999 and 2008, CH2M Hill had a federal contract to manage and clean 177 large underground storage tanks containing mixed radioactive and...
New York-based Corning Incorporated has agreed to pay $5.65 million to the U.S. government to resolve allegations that it knowingly presented false claims for laboratory research products it sold to federal agencies through its Life Sciences division.
In 2005, Corning entered a contract to sell laboratory research products to the federal government through a program that...
The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it was joining a civil lawsuit alleging that Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and Tailwind Sports LLC and Tailwind Sports Corporation (Tailwind) submitted or caused the submission of false claims to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in connection with its sponsorship of a professional bicycle racing team by regularly employing...
On February 5, 2013, California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a lawsuit against Standard and Poor's Financial Services LLC and the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. , alleging violations of the California False Claims Act and other state law for inflating ratings of investments, which caused California's teachers public employees' pension funds, among others, to...
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Justice Department officials have recommended joining a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by former teammate Floyd Landis that alleges that Lance Armstrong and team managers defrauded the U.S. government when they accepted money from the U.S. Postal Service and then violated their contract by using performance-enhancing drugs...
On January 1, 2013, the amendments to the California False Claims Act, signed into law last year by Governor Jerry Brown, took effect. The amendments, among other things, expand the definition of a claim under the state False Claims Act, increase the civil penalties for each violation of the law, and provide qui tam plaintiffs with up to 33% of the proceeds of the action or...
The Journal of Accountancy reports that the Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations for whistleblower awards in violation of tax law cases and for the disclosure of tax return information. The proposed regulations are intended to provide general rules for submitting claims to the IRS, rules for proceedings, and factors to evaluate the size of an award. Read the...
The U.S. Secretary of Labor announced the creation of the Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee (WPAC), to advise, consult with and make recommendations to the Department of Labor on ways to improve the fairness, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's whistleblower protection programs. The WPAC members will...
