False Claims Act Update & Alert
	Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. | WWW.TAF.ORG           December 12, 2007
		Subscribe to this FREE Newsletter Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz n TAF Home Page n Previous Newsletters n Email editor   Please take a moment to forward this FREE electronic newsletter to others that might be interested!	$42 Million Sand Theft In 2001, tugboat captain Kevin Bartoo filed a case under the California False Claims Act against Hanson Building Materials.  The lawsuit charged Hanson with illegally pumping sand from Suisun Bay, and then misreporting the amount of sand mined and its value.  Hanson faked the value of the sand by selling it to affiliates at $3.30 per cubic yard, while the affiliates sold it to others for $12.50 per cubic yard.  Mr. Bartoo was awarded 27% of the $42.2 million settlement, plus a portion of the higher royalties Hanson will now be required to pay the State Lands Commission.  >> To read more Ambulance Co. to Pay $6 Million The president of a Greybor Medical Transportation, and his wife, have agreed to pay $6 million and relinquish all claims to an additional $1 million in suspended Medicare payments.  Boris Shpirt is currently serving a 108-month prison sentence for Medicare fraud, while his wife is on supervised release after serving an 18-month sentence.  The Shpirts and Greybor regularly submitted claims to Medicare for  “bed-confined” ambulance transport when the patients were often riding in the front seat. >> To read more Iraq:  Money Without Meter The Inspector General of the Dept. of Defense reports that the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, which had a budget of $5.5 billion in FY 2007, had just 1 auditor and 16 comptrollers to keep track of the money. The result:  an audit of $643.1 million in purchases could find a paper trail for only 12.9% of the total, while an audit of another $438.2 million could find an audit trail for only 1%. >> To read more Asphalt Company Settles False Claims Act Case for $8.2 Million Gohmann Asphalt and Construction Company of Indiana has agreed to pay over $8.2 million to settle claims made by the U.S. Government, as well as the states of Kentucky and Indiana.  The company was falsifying asphalt quality testing involving federal highway contracts in Indiana and Kentucky.  >> To read more NJ Hospital to Pay $7.5 Million Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, N.J., has agreed to pay the United States $7.5 million to settle allegations it defrauded Medicare by purposefully inflating charges for inpatient and outpatient care.  Peter Salvatori and Sara Iverson, the relators in this case, will share 16 percent of the total recovery, or $1.2 million.  Mr. Salvatori and Ms. Iverson were also the relators in two other outlier fraud cases dealing with Tenet Hospital and St. Barnabas Hospitals. >> To read more Cigarette Importation FCA Premier Manufacturing, a South Carolina cigarette importer, has agreed to pay $3.1 million to settle civil claims it deliberately understated the weight of cigarettes it imported to the U.S. between 1995 and 2002.  The civil settlement is in addition to the $7.16 million in restitution the company paid as part of a criminal plea in 2005. >> To read more Harris Hosp. Pays $1.9 Million Harris Methodist Hospital in Texas has agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle claims it violated the False Claims Act by billing for orthopedic-business it got on referral from a physician group that had received free rent from the hospital, thereby violating the anti-kickback rules of Medicare. >> To read more