When it comes to the safety of our military, there is no room for shortcuts. Austal USA LLC, a shipbuilder out of Mobile, Alabama, crossed that line by allegedly supplying the military with “butterfly valves” that did not meet military grade standards. Butterfly valves are quarter-turn valves that rotate to [...]
Last Thursday (August 22), the Department of Justice (DOJ) joined a whistleblower lawsuit alleging the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech Research Corp. violated the False Claims Act by failing to meet cybersecurity requirements on certain Department of Defense contracts. The whistleblowers who originated the action were members of [...]
In a landmark case for affordable housing justice, the City of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $38.2 million to resolve a False Claims Act whistleblower suit alleging misuse of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funds. Whistleblower Mei Ling, an L.A. resident who uses a wheelchair, played [...]
After a relatively quiet year of SEC whistleblower awards, the SEC seems to be on a bit of a roll with its announcement today of a $24 million award to two whistleblowers. This follows last Friday’s award (August 23) of a whopping $98 million to two whistleblowers, which followed two [...]
Last Friday (August 23), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced two awards under the SEC Whistleblower Program. The awards flow from the government’s recovery in enforcement actions brought by the SEC and another, undisclosed federal agency. One whistleblower, who the SEC credited with prompting the agency to open the [...]
National Interventional Radiology Partners PLLC (NIRP) and its founder, Dr. Andrew Gomes, have agreed to pay nearly $9 million to resolve kickback allegations under the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Anti-Kickback Statute(AKS). NIRP and Dr. Gomes prioritized their profits over patient care by paying kickbacks for Medicare referrals. In [...]
Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: BNPL Providers Won’t Face Penalties During Transition to New CFPB Rule Payments Dive – August 20, 2024 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday announced that the agency will not fine buy now, pay later providers while they prepare to work under a new interpretive [...]
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a ruling against Raizen Energia SA, a major Brazilian energy and sugar company, and its Swiss affiliate, Raizen Trading SA. The companies have been ordered to pay a combined $750,000 penalty for engaging in illegal wash sales and non-competitive transactions within the [...]
Today the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced a $600,000 settlement to resolve False Claims Act violations with Orange Medical Care, P.C., a family medicine practice based in Newburgh, New York. Orange Medical Care and its owners, Drs. Ashikkumar A. Raval and Manish A. Raval, admitted [...]
It has been a very busy week for the DOJ tackling COVID-19 fraud. On August 15, DOJ announced that The Bloom Firm, a California-based law firm, along with senior management members Lisa Bloom and Braden Pollock, reached a settlement over government allegations of violating the False Claims Act by misusing [...]
