February 9, 2015
The Justice Department has announced that a 44 year old retired Army Sergeant Major working as a civilian contracting official for the Army, James Warner, was arrested on January 28th for allegedly soliciting bribes from company executives. DOJ Press Release.
According to the affidavit filed by the government in support of the criminal complaint, Warner met with executives of Company A, a…
January 12, 2015
Happy New Year! The start of a new year is a time for New Year’s Resolutions. Here are several we strongly urge you to follow-through on early in 2015.
1. Reassess Your (and Any Subcontractors’) Small Business Size Status: Most companies operate on a calendar year for tax reporting purposes. For such companies the start of a new tax year, and the end of the prior year, means a change…
December 9, 2014
On November 20, 2014 the Department of Justice announced that it recovered nearly $6 billion from False Claims Act cases during Fiscal Year 2014, cresting $5 billion for the first time ever. Acting Associate Attorney General Delery stated that "these figures result not only from large individual matters, but from a continuous commitment year after year to pursue those who defraud taxpayers…
November 18, 2014
Given the FAR 9.103(b) mandate that “no purchase or award shall be made unless the contracting officer makes an affirmative determination of responsibility,” FCi Federal, Inc. (FCi) was surprised when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a $210 million contract to FCi’s competitor, USIS PSD. Why? Because the award came after a flurry of media reports containing allegations of…
November 4, 2014
A 54-year old Virginia executive, Mark Farmer, was indicted in October for allegedly providing things of value to the former director of two Ohio Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers. The alleged quid pro quo was that, in exchange for these items of value, the VA director provided confidential information to Farmer about various VA construction projects. The charges in the…
August 25, 2014
The Justice Department recently announced another False Claims Act settlement – this time with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). HP has agreed to pay $32.5 million to resolve allegations that it overcharged the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for commercial information technology products HP delivered to the USPS between 2001 and 2010. Department of Justice Release - August 1, 2014.
According to the…
August 18, 2014
The Department of Justice recently announced that McKesson Corporation (McKesson) has agreed to pay $18 million to resolve a False Claims Act case. This settlement resolves allegations of wrongdoing first raised by McKesson’s former finance director under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act.
McKesson held a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
July 28, 2014
The recent Federal Circuit opinion in Veridyne Corporation v. United States, No. 2013-5011 (Fed. Cir. July 15, 2014), is a cautionary tale about not trying to game the system to take advantage of a contractor’s expiring 8(a) status.
Veridyne Corporation (“Veridyne”) was a successful federal contractor that participated in the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) 8(a) program. Veridyne had…
May 16, 2014
It is standard under the False Claims Act that if the government takes over a relator’s claims and later gets a recovery on the claim, the relator is entitled to a percentage of the recovery. 31 U.S.C. § 3730(d)(1). In United States ex rel. Norman Rille v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, et al., No. 11-3514 (8th Cir. April 10, 2014), the federal government…
March 11, 2014
The Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) recently issued its Semiannual Report to Congress, covering the second half of FY 2013. The report summarizes the “achievements” of the DoD IG, as well as the military audit and investigative agencies. During the reporting period, the DoD IG identified $23.5 billion in potential monetary benefits and investigations conducted by the…
March 6, 2014
For more than eight years – since the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 – Congress has been incentivizing states to enact anti-fraud legislation modeled after the federal False Claims Act (FCA). While many states long ago enacted civil false claims acts that focused on Medicaid fraud, at least as of 2005 few states had broader statutes modeled on the federal FCA. This has changed and…
February 18, 2014
In a recent case, FreshPoint, Inc., a large food distribution company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sysco Corp., agreed to pay $4.2 million for overbilling the Department of Defense for produce. The case, United States ex rel. Hall v. SYSCO Corp., No. 4:11-CV-57 (M.D. Tenn. filed Dec. 13, 2010), involved a whistleblower complaint filed by former FreshPoint employee Charles…
February 9, 2015
The Justice Department has announced that a 44 year old retired Army Sergeant Major working as a civilian contracting official for the Army, James Warner, was arrested on January 28th for allegedly soliciting bribes from company executives. DOJ Press Release.
According to the affidavit filed by the government in support of the criminal complaint, Warner met with executives of Company A, a…
January 12, 2015
Happy New Year! The start of a new year is a time for New Year’s Resolutions. Here are several we strongly urge you to follow-through on early in 2015.
1. Reassess Your (and Any Subcontractors’) Small Business Size Status: Most companies operate on a calendar year for tax reporting purposes. For such companies the start of a new tax year, and the end of the prior year, means a change…
December 9, 2014
On November 20, 2014 the Department of Justice announced that it recovered nearly $6 billion from False Claims Act cases during Fiscal Year 2014, cresting $5 billion for the first time ever. Acting Associate Attorney General Delery stated that "these figures result not only from large individual matters, but from a continuous commitment year after year to pursue those who defraud taxpayers…
November 18, 2014
Given the FAR 9.103(b) mandate that “no purchase or award shall be made unless the contracting officer makes an affirmative determination of responsibility,” FCi Federal, Inc. (FCi) was surprised when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a $210 million contract to FCi’s competitor, USIS PSD. Why? Because the award came after a flurry of media reports containing allegations of…
November 4, 2014
A 54-year old Virginia executive, Mark Farmer, was indicted in October for allegedly providing things of value to the former director of two Ohio Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers. The alleged quid pro quo was that, in exchange for these items of value, the VA director provided confidential information to Farmer about various VA construction projects. The charges in the…
August 25, 2014
The Justice Department recently announced another False Claims Act settlement – this time with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). HP has agreed to pay $32.5 million to resolve allegations that it overcharged the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for commercial information technology products HP delivered to the USPS between 2001 and 2010. Department of Justice Release - August 1, 2014.
According to the…
August 18, 2014
The Department of Justice recently announced that McKesson Corporation (McKesson) has agreed to pay $18 million to resolve a False Claims Act case. This settlement resolves allegations of wrongdoing first raised by McKesson’s former finance director under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act.
McKesson held a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
July 28, 2014
The recent Federal Circuit opinion in Veridyne Corporation v. United States, No. 2013-5011 (Fed. Cir. July 15, 2014), is a cautionary tale about not trying to game the system to take advantage of a contractor’s expiring 8(a) status.
Veridyne Corporation (“Veridyne”) was a successful federal contractor that participated in the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) 8(a) program. Veridyne had…
May 16, 2014
It is standard under the False Claims Act that if the government takes over a relator’s claims and later gets a recovery on the claim, the relator is entitled to a percentage of the recovery. 31 U.S.C. § 3730(d)(1). In United States ex rel. Norman Rille v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, et al., No. 11-3514 (8th Cir. April 10, 2014), the federal government…
March 11, 2014
The Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) recently issued its Semiannual Report to Congress, covering the second half of FY 2013. The report summarizes the “achievements” of the DoD IG, as well as the military audit and investigative agencies. During the reporting period, the DoD IG identified $23.5 billion in potential monetary benefits and investigations conducted by the…
March 6, 2014
For more than eight years – since the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 – Congress has been incentivizing states to enact anti-fraud legislation modeled after the federal False Claims Act (FCA). While many states long ago enacted civil false claims acts that focused on Medicaid fraud, at least as of 2005 few states had broader statutes modeled on the federal FCA. This has changed and…
February 18, 2014
In a recent case, FreshPoint, Inc., a large food distribution company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sysco Corp., agreed to pay $4.2 million for overbilling the Department of Defense for produce. The case, United States ex rel. Hall v. SYSCO Corp., No. 4:11-CV-57 (M.D. Tenn. filed Dec. 13, 2010), involved a whistleblower complaint filed by former FreshPoint employee Charles…
