A New York appeals court ruled Thursday that a suit alleging that Sprint avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in sales taxes can proceed. The court affirmed the lower court’s finding that the AG’s complaint sufficiently alleged violations of the New York State False Claims Act. The appeals court also affirmed the lower court’s decision to retroactively apply the 2010 amendments to the statute, which removed the bar on tax-based FCA actions and made New York the first state to explicitly permit such actions. The Sprint case is the first action to allege violation of the new tax provisions.

Read the AG’s Press Release, “A.G. Schneiderman Wins Right To Proceed With Groundbreaking Tax Fraud Lawsuit Against Sprint For Approximately $400 Million”
Read the decision, People v Sprint Nextel Corp., 2014 NY Slip Op 01403 (Feb. 27, 2014)
Read our earlier posts on the case, “Judge Denies Sprint’s Motion to Dismiss in New York FCA Tax Case”; “NYS AG Files First FCA Tax Case”