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False Claims Act Update & Alert |
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Taxpayers
Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. |
WWW.TAF.ORG
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n TAF Home Page n Previous Newsletters n Email editor
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 Pharma
Lawyers Now Driving Billion Dollar
SettlementsWould $1,000-an-hour lawyers for big pharmaceutical companies continue to litigate if they were paid only if they won? That's a question pharmacy company executives might want to start asking in the wake of the fifth straight loss in an Average Wholesale Price case at the state level. Here's how the cases line up by state, company, and jury verdict, with the last number a "national number" when the state verdict is weighted by population:
4Alabama
- AstraZeneca - $215 million - $14.06
billion The Wisconsin verdict is the latest blow to the pharmaceutical industry, but it will not be the last as Sandoz is about to go to trial in Alabama and dozens of other companies are lined up behind that. |
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 Shipping
Firm to Pay $26
MillionAPL Ltd, an Oakland, California shipping company has agreed to pay the U.S. Government $26.3 million to settle a False Claims Act case charging it with fraudulently inflating bills for shipping cargo to the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. >> To read more |
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 DoJ
Joins FCA Suit Against Scios and Johnson & Johnson The U.S. Justice Department has joined two whistleblower lawsuits alleging that Johnson & Johnson and Scios engaged in off-label marketing of the cardiac drug Natrecor. >>To read more |
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 Liberty Medical
... Again
Diabetes-supply
firm
Liberty Medical
has been served a subpoena as part of an HHS investigation.
Liberty Medical settled a False Claims Act Case in 2004 for $30
million. >>
To read more |
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 Katrina
Case Reinstated
The U.S. Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a
New Orleans whistleblower lawsuit
against insurers
that allegedly overbilled the
National Flood Insurance Program after
Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit, by Branch
Consultants, was dismissed in October
of 2007 on the grounds that its core
allegations were already covered by a rival
whistleblower suit in Mississippi. >>
To read more
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 IRS
Whistleblower Case Settled for $780 Million UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, will pay $780 million to settle charges it helped thousands of wealthy Americans evade taxes. UBS settled after Heinrich Kieber, a former employee of a Liechtenstein bank, brought documents to the IRS detailing massive tax cheating by U.S. citizens. >> To read more |
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 Pennsylvania Needs an FCA
The Philadelphia Inquirer
says:
"Pennsylvania is missing out on an opportunity to collect
tens of millions of tax dollars that are misspent by hospitals,
drug-makers, and other companies that receive state funds.
Lawmakers in Harrisburg should pass a state version of the
federal False Claims Act, which is used to collect billions of
dollars stolen from the government by contractors... If Pennsylvania had a False Claims Act, it
might use it to recoup triple damages in [a] recent
case ... Triple damages in that case could
result in an award of $174 million." |
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 AT&T Pays $8.2 Million AT&T has agreed to pay over $8.2 million to settle charges it violated the False Claims Act in connection with the Federal Communication Commission's E-Rate program which is designed to bring the Internet to poor or under-served schools. >> To read more |
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 Million
Dollar Adult Diaper FraudThe owner of a Texas medical supply company has been charged with fraudulently billing the U.S. Government for $1 million in adult diapers that customers never received. >> To read more |
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