Overview
Drawing upon years of experience in high-profile government investigations such as Watergate, Iran Contra, WorldCom, and the Hurricane Katrina investigations, we have the knowledge and expertise to lead our clients through the civil, criminal and regulatory investigations under the False Claims Act.
Each year, billions of dollars are paid by the government due to false claims for payment, healthcare fraud, fraudulent tax returns, and securities scams. The sheer number and complexity of these schemes outpaces the ability of the government to identify, investigate, and recover the false claims for payment. The fraudulent schemes include, for example, billing for unnecessary procedures; over-billing, double-billing, or upcoding; falsifying data to secure government approvals for drugs or devices; providing kickbacks to induce the use of drugs or devices; providing defective or worthless services; marketing and promoting drugs and devices for unapproved or un-cleared uses; failing to give Medicare and Medicaid the best price for drugs; and billing for unallowable costs in defense contracts.
Federal and state whistleblower programs reward individuals for providing information on undisclosed frauds. The primary federal law is the False Claims Act (“FCA”), also known as the Lincoln Act. It is intended to encourage, protect and reward citizens who come forward with information to assist the government in identifying fraudulent claims and practices related to healthcare, defense, and other federal spending programs.
Under the FCA, a private person can sue another private party on behalf of the federal government in what is called a qui tam suit. If the federal government collects a settlement or court judgment because of the information provided by the qui tam plaintiff, the government is required to pay a portion of the recovery to the plaintiff.
Whether filing or defending a qui tam lawsuit, the process requires experienced attorneys who know the statute, the law, and the procedural requirements to achieve success.
Contact Andrew M. Beato (abeato@steinmitchell.com) if you know of a fraudulent practice in a government program or contract.