Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Buy Now, Pay Later Users Pile on Debt, CFPB Finds Payments Dive – January 14, 2025 Nearly two-thirds of consumers in the U.S. who lean on buy now, pay later transactions to pay for goods and services take out multiple BNPL loans at once, the [...]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) just released its False Claims Act results for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024. By all accounts, it has been another banner year for whistleblowers and the government in their efforts to combat fraud and recover pilfered taxpayer dollars. First, the overarching numbers for [...]
“The False Claims Act is so important… I would defend the constitutionality… of the False Claims Act.” On January 15, 2025, Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi attended her Senate confirmation hearing and answered questions from Senator Chuck Grassley, who has demonstrated unwavering support for the False Claims Act. In response [...]
A key part of the job for whistleblower lawyers and government enforcers is fitting new facts to existing precedent. Despite fraudsters deploying what appear to be new and innovative ways to illicitly obtain government or investor funds, the crux of the scheme is often the same decade after decade. As [...]
Federal prosecutors continue the crack down on fraudsters that prey on innocent investors. On January 6, Daniel M. Gitner, Chief, Criminal Division, in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, announced that Yvette Wang a/k/a “Yanping” was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy [...]
Athira Pharma Inc., a Bothwell, Washington-based, clinical stage bio-pharmaceutical company, will pay $4,068,698 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act. It failed to report claims of research misconduct to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Research Integrity [...]
In January 2025, the government announced that lab marketers, physicians and their associated entities have agreed to pay $1,137,914 to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they participated in laboratory kickback schemes in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute. The parties involved include physicians Dr. Abbesalom Ghermay (from Plano, Texas); Dr. [...]
Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: The Fight Over Credit Card Swipe Fees Enters a New Year With No End in Sight NBC News – January 4, 2025 Many small businesses are breathing a bit easier as inflation has cooled and the race for workers slows. But consumers’ steady embrace of [...]
On December 29, 2024, the government announced that Buffalo, New York’s Independent Health Association and Independent Health Corporation (collectively known as Independent Health) have agreed to pay up to $98 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting, or causing the submission of, invalid diagnosis [...]
Booz Allen closed out 2024 by agreeing to pay $15,875,000 to settle allegations that one of its subsidiaries, Booz Allen Hamilton Engineering Services LLC (BES), violated the False Claims Act by engaging misconduct in connection with the government’s procurement process. The FCA allegations centered around BES claims for payment related [...]