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A former Alere Inc. employee who blew the whistle on the medical device manufacturer will receive approximately $5.6 million as a reward. The former senior quality control analyst exposed millions of dollars in false claims against Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs.
DOJ: Alere Inc. knowingly sold unreliable diagnostic devices
SEC: 3 Whistleblowers receive record total rewards of $83 million
The Securities and Exchange Commission has just announced three record-setting rewards for whistleblowers under the Dodd-Frank Act. Two of the whistleblowers will share an award of nearly $50 million, while a third will receive over $33 million. The SEC says that the previous record was a 2014 award of $30 million.
Trucking company fraudulently misused federal gas credit cards
Virginia-based Beam Bros. Trucking Inc. and its principles have agreed to settle a federal False Claims Act case for $1,025,000. According to the Justice Department, Beam Bros. entered into U.S. Postal Service contracts to transport mail.
Did Wells Fargo close fraud victims' accounts to save money?
Whenever a customer or bank notices signs of fraud on the customer's account, the bank is required by law to perform an investigation. It must determine whether criminal activity has occurred and whether the customer was involved. When the customer is involved, the bank immediately closes the account. When the customer is an innocent victim, the bank typically offers at least some assistance in retrieving the stolen money.
WHISTLEBLOWER CASE BROUGHT BY FISCHER LEGAL GROUP CLIENT AGAINST LONG ISLAND PEDIATRICIANS SETTLES FOR $750,000
New York, March 7, 2018: The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of NewYork and the Attorney General for the State of New York settled a Federal and New York StateFalse Claims Act qui tam action, brought by Andrea Fischer and handled by Andrea Fischer andAudrey Schechter of Fischer Legal Group, on behalf of its client whistleblower, against Freed,Kleinberg, Nussbaum, Festa & Kronberg M.D. LLP; Arnold W. Scherz, M.D.; MitchellKleinberg, M.D.; Michael Nussbaum, M.D.; Robert Festa, M.D.; and Jason Kronberg, D.O.The suit, 14-CV-3943, was filed in 2014 by Andrea Fischer in the United States DistrictCourt for the Eastern District of New York and was ably and successfully pursued by the UnitedStates Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and the New York State AttorneyGeneral's office.The suit alleged that Defendants, in contravention of Medicaid regulations, did not enrollmany of their employee-providers who treated Medicaid patients, in the Medicaid program.Defendants then billed Medicaid for services provided by these unenrolled employee-providers,under their own provider numbers.
DOJ accuses compounding pharmacy of TRICARE kickback scheme
The Department of Justice has just brought a mammoth case against a Florida compounding pharmacy, two of its executives, and the private equity firm that owns it. The agency accuses the defendants of paying illegal kickbacks to telemedicine doctors and, in some cases, patients, to induce prescriptions for scar creams, vitamins and pain creams without regard for medical need. These prescriptions were then reimbursed by TRICARE, the federally funded healthcare program for military service members and their families.
False Claims Act’s whistleblower provision is a powerful tool
The False Claims Act, originally instituted in 1863, is a federal law aimed at fighting fraud against the United States government. Recently, a lawsuit using the whistleblower provision of this law was filed in Florida by two former employees of Patient Care America (PCA), Marisela Medrano and Ada Lopez. This provision allows individuals to stand up for the integrity of the United States government to curb fraud.
