FCPA: Employee of State-Owned Company can be a "foreign official"
For some bedside reading, here is Judge Matz's opinion holding that an employee of a state-owned company can be a "foreign official" under the FCPA.
View ArticleCommentary: The Lauren Stevens Prosecution; Lessons for All
We have all been watching the prosecution and trial of former GlaxoSmithKline in-house counsel Lauren Stevens with a mix of anxiety, self-interest and empathy. After all, who among us has not honored...
View ArticleJudge Saris rejects effort to revive Marcus v. Hess to expand FCA liability
In the wake of the Supreme Court's opinion in Alison Engine, which held that false statement liability under the 1985 federal False Claims Act requires proof that the defendant made the false statement...
View ArticleA Settlement Agreement Is Not An Ending
On occasion a party to litigation, especially litigation with the federal government, thinks that the settlement is the end of the road. That is often not the case. The recent news involving Wright...
View ArticleLauren Stevens Cleared; Prosecution rebuked
In an opinion granting a Rule 20 motion to dimiss the indictment against a former GlaxoSmithKline in-house counsel, federal district judge Roger Titus warned, "There is an enormous potential for abuse...
View ArticleFOIA Request Cannot Form Basis for a False Claims Act Suit
Today, in Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex. rel. Kirk, the Supreme Court held that the public disclosure bar of the False Claims Act precludes using information received pursuant to a FOIA...
View ArticleOMG! Even the OIG Is Tweeting.
Okay, I just learned to blog and now the OIG is tweeting! (You know you are in trouble when the government outpaces you in technology. As my good friend Jim Sheehan always said, "The U.S. government;...
View ArticleDOJ: FCPA Enforcement Matters
On Wednesday, May 25, 2011, Lanny Breuer, Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, used the occasion of 12th International Investigators Conference hosted by the World Bank in...
View ArticleSelling Compliance: We Can Invest Or Spend
At a recent event sponsored by the Washington D.C. Diverse Partners Network I had the welcome opportunity to hearJuliette Pryor, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Ethics Officer for...
View ArticleFirst Circuit Opinion Firmly Endorses an Expansive Interpretation of the FCA
On June 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a significant and far-reaching opinion in the False Claims Act (FCA) case U.S. ex rel. Susan Hutcheson et al. v. Blackstone Medical Inc. The court...
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Michael Loucks: Terminator 2?
Remember the opening scene of Terminator 2? Arnold appears in the doorway of a biker bar, naked, buff and ominous? Now picture Michael Loucks. (Okay, maybe not). But just as in Terminator 2, it...
View ArticleThe OIG Posts Provider Compliance Training Videos and Presentation Materials
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General's (OIG's) Healthcare Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) has hosted a series Provider Compliance...
View ArticleDid you hear the one about the compliance officer who walks into a bar and...
The Wall Street Journal reports today on a contest to find--wait for it--the nation's funniest compliance professional. Yes, that's right. According to the Journal, "The idea for the contest was...
View ArticleOIG Creates Quality of Care CIA WebPage
Both the HHS-OIG and the DOJ have long been attempting to use the False Claims Act to address cases in which a provider provides substandard medical care. According to OIG, "When a False Claims Act...
View ArticleWashington Legal Foundation Files Amicus Brief Challenging Exclusions
The Washington Legal Foundation ("WLF") filed a brief as amicus curiae in the D.C. Circuit Court in support of the challenge of three former Purdue Frederick executives who are challenging the 12 year...
View ArticleLew Morris Testifies to OIG's Efforts to Harness Technology to Combat Fraud
On July 12th, Lew Morris, Chief Counsel to the Office of Inspector General testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial...
View ArticlePaying Employees' Legal Fees
In the New York Times this weekend, James B. Stewart had a lengthy column about companies' paying employees legal fees. The jumping off point involved News Corp.:When the News Corporation announced it...
View ArticleHHS OIG Decides to Not Exclude Forest Labs CEO
In Washington, D.C., politicians and the government have long known that if you have bad news, the best time to release it is on a Friday afternoon. Doing so reduces the amount of media coverage and by...
View ArticleDoes the Government’s Health Care Fraud Enforcement Agenda Undermine Its...
Recent cases raise the question whether the Department of Justice’s continuing war on health care fraud is actually undermining its broader, stated goal of reducing Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The...
View ArticleWashinton Health Care Summit: CLE and a free drink! What's not to like?
This Fall Health Care Reform will be on the Supreme Court's docket, the congressional agenda and the administration's "honeydo" list. Members of Congress will have returned to Washington having spent...
View ArticleSupreme Court Denies Cert in Hutcheson
Ouch. The Supreme Court has denied defendant's petition asking the Court to reverse the First Circuit's expansive interpretation of the False Claim Act's reach. As previously posted, in United States...
View ArticlePPACA As Job Creation Engine
My sage but witty friend Andy Demetriou, with tongue firmly in cheek, forwarded this brilliant suggestion for how the administration can create jobs, which I could not resist forwarding (with his...
View ArticleWhy Defendants Should Try More FCA Cases
A district court in the Eastern District of Virginia recently held the civil penalties provisions of the federal False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §3729(a)(1)-(3)(2000) (FCA), unconstitutional as...
View ArticleChief Justice Roberts to President Obama: "Now We're Even!"
Chief Justice Roberts made up to President Obama for mangling the oath of office Roberts administered to the President at his inauguration by joining with the four liberal justices to declare the...
View ArticleDOJ Announces Its Most Recent Largest Ever Pharmaceutical Settlement
The Department of Justice announced today, Monday July 2nd, 2012, that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has entered into a plea agreement and agreed to pay $3 billion dollars to resolve civil and criminal charges...
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