The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a pair of decisions concerning the definition of “falsity” under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). While some commentators had predicted the Supreme Court might review the cases to resolve a split among the U.S. Courts of Appeals as to whether a claim must be “objectively false”…
SEC Awards More than $9.2 Million to Whistleblower for Successful Related Actions, Including Agreement with DOJ
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced an award of more than $9.2 million to a whistleblower who provided information that led to both a successful SEC enforcement action and successful related actions by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”). According to the SEC, the whistleblower provided significant information about an ongoing fraud to the…
U.S. Department of Labor Announces OSHA to Investigate Whistleblower Retaliation Claims Under New Antitrust, Anti-Money Laundering Laws
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) will now oversee worker retaliation complaints filed under two new whistleblower statutes—the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act and the Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) Act. The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act, which was signed into law in December 2020, heightens protections for whistleblowers who…
Engineer Pleads Guilty to More Than $10 Million of COVID-Relief Fraud
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that a Texas engineer has pleaded guilty to filing fraudulent bank loan applications seeking more than $10 million dollars in forgivable loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act. The CARES Act established the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”)…
Newly Introduced Antitrust Legislation Includes Whistleblower Proposal
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D – Minn) recently introduced a new antitrust reform legislative package known as the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (“CALERA”), which provides for wide-ranging changes to U.S. antitrust laws. Among its many provisions, CALERA includes a proposal for antitrust whistleblower reform. First, CALERA proposes to expand whistleblower protections by extending…
Boeing Whistleblower Concerned that Defects Remain in 737 MAX Aircrafts
Ed Pierson, a former Boeing senior manager who blew the whistle on Boeing’s failure to safely produce its 737 MAX aircrafts and ultimately testified before Congress in 2019, has issued a new report in which he argues that major aspects of Boeing’s manufacturing failures remain to be analyzed. Pierson’s report comes on the heels of…
Founder of Pharmaceutical Company to Pay $5 Million in Opioid Bribery Settlement
The Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey (“NJ AG”) announced that it has reached a settlement with John N. Kapoor, the founder of Insys Therapeutics (“Insys”), to resolve allegations that Kapoor orchestrated bribes to doctors in New Jersey as part of a nationwide kickback scheme to boost sales of Insys’ opioid drug known…
Appeals Court Revives $248 Million Whistleblower Case Against Defunct Mortgage Lender
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has revived a qui tam whistleblower lawsuit that alleges defunct mortgage lender Mortgage Investors Corporation (“MIC”) defrauded a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) lending program, holding that the lower court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of MIC. The case involves a VA lending…
DOJ Reports Recovery of Over $2.2 Billion from False Claims Act Cases in Fiscal Year 2020
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it had obtained more than $2.2 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in fiscal year 2020. Recoveries since 1986, when Congress substantially strengthened the False Claims Act (“FCA”), now total more than $64 billion. The vast majority of…
SBA IG Releases New Inspection Report on Implementation of PPP
On January 14, 2021, the Inspector General (“IG”) of the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) released a new report on the IG’s inspection of the SBA’s implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), a lending program established pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act and designed to provide fully guaranteed SBA…