Criminal Law › Government Contracting

PEMEX Files Suit to Recover $160 Million in Bribery Case

Mexican state oil company Pemex has filed a lawsuit in New York seeking to recover nearly $160 million from Germany's Siemens and South Korea's SK Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. in a global bribery case, a law firm...more

Wartime Suspension Of Limitations Act Suspends Statute Of Limitations In False Claims Act Cases

The False Claims Act (FCA), which allows both the government and whistleblowers to seek treble damages for claims of civil fraud on the United States, is a powerful tool. In the past two years, the government has aggressively...more

CMS Proposes to Increase Awards for Non-Qui Tam Whistleblowers

CMS wants to change the way that it rewards non-qui tam whistleblowers who report alleged fraudulent or unlawful conduct related to Medicare or Medicaid. Using an IRS program as a model, CMS recently proposed rule changes to...more

Hospital And Physician Compliance With Anti-Kickback And Stark Restrictions

A bribe is a bribe. It is not as easy as it sounds. Not all payments of money or transfers of value are bribes. The FCPA tells us that. It is even more complicated when trying to navigate Anti-Kickback and Stark law...more

Arrests Made and Investigation Underway at a Chicago Hospital

On April 16, 2013, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois announced the arrest in Chicago of the owner and senior executive of Sacred Heart Hospital...more

White Collar Watch - April 2013

In This Issue: - Third Circuit Panel Liberalizes “Protected Activity” Immunity for Employees Claiming Whistleblower Status - Doing Time: A Requirement for White Collar Crime? - Casting a Smaller Net:...more

Revolving Door Risk: Failure to Follow Best Practices Can Have Severe Consequences

Not surprisingly, private industry frequently considers hiring current and former federal government employees for their experience, knowledge base, and skill sets. As a reaction to the continuing perception, however, that...more

Recent Multi-Million Dollar Whistleblower Jury Awards — A Wake-Up Call For Employers

In what might be an unsettling trend for employers, juries in Philadelphia and Anchorage have recently issued multi-million dollar jury awards in favor of whistleblowers. Specifically, on March 22, 2013, a Philadelphia Common...more

United States Government Accountability Office GAO Report to Congressional Requesters

GAO Report on Independent Foreclosure Reviews Exposes OCC, Fed’s Plan to Deliberately Minimize Evidence of Borrower Harm

FORECLOSURE REVIEW Lessons Learned Could Enhance Continuing Reviews and Activities under Amended Consent Orders The Government Accountability Office released their second report on the Independent Foreclosure Reviews. At...more

Employment Law Newsletter - March 2013

In This Issue: - Government Contractor Alert: Criminal Convictions and Employment Decisions Don’t Mix - New Rulings on Social Media Policies May Impact Your Company’s Policy - Meet Our Attorneys - William F....more

Deferred Prosecution Agreements: How an Effective Compliance Program Can Help You Plan for the Unpredictable

During the past several years, prosecutors have increasingly used Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) against corporations in enforcing white collar criminal statutes. DPAs have enabled companies to avoid the costs and...more

Health Care Enforcement in 2012: A Year in Review

Last year was another busy year in health care fraud enforcement. In 2012, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG) reported total expected recoveries of $6.9 billion from all...more

Too Big to Exclude; Too Much Wrongdoing to Ignore

A 2007 audit initiated by a Medicare Program Safeguard Contractor (PSC) discovered that a North Carolina provider had a high incidence of inpatient billings for patients who did not stay in the hospital overnight. The PSC's...more

False Press Release Leads To Exclusion From Federal Programs

Dr. Harkonen was the CEO of InterMune, Inc, a pharmaceutical company that developed, marketed and sold drugs for lung and liver diseases, including Actimmune. In 2002, the FDA had approved Actimmune to treat only two...more

Hospitals And Fraud Enforcement

The HHS Office of Inspector General has targeted hospitals for fraud enforcement. It is one of the OIG’s most important initiatives because of the impact it could have on reducing health care costs....more

The Real FCPA Guide: 35 years in the Making - “Non-Binding” Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Resource Useful to Companies Competing...

More than 35 years after becoming law, the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice and the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission released their long-awaited guidance on the...more

10 Fraud and Abuse Enforcement Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore in 2013

To paraphrase a famous quote, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it," and providers who ignore the significance of the federal government's healthcare fraud enforcements efforts in 2012 do so at their...more

Canadian Companies Beware: The Canadian Government Continues Its Focus on Anti-Corruption Prosecutions

Following on the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent guidance on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), events in Canada provide further reason for companies on both sides of the border to increase...more

Judge Approves Two-Year Delayed Prosecution of WakeMed

A Federal district court judge issued a February 8, 2013 order granting a delayed prosecution against Raleigh, NC-based WakeMed Health and Hospitals for allegedly submitting false inpatient bills to Medicare. The...more

A Closer Look at the Griffiths Energy Case: Lessons and Insights on Canadian Anti-Corruption Enforcement

On January 25, 2013, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench approved a $10.35 million penalty against Griffiths Energy International Inc. (Griffiths) for a violation of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act1 (CFPOA) in...more

Significant CFPOA Amendments Proposed to Strengthen Canada’s Anti-Corruption Regime

On February 5, 2013 Bill S-14, the Fighting Foreign Corruption Act was introduced in Canada’s Senate. It proposes the most significant amendments to the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA) since it came into...more

Human Trafficking And Government Contractors

If you want to do business with the government, watch out – the federal government imposes a lot of strings when handing out business. Compliance officers face a wide array of requirements which can quickly turn into...more

Second Circuit Vacates Pharmaceutical Misbranding Conviction on Free Speech Grounds

After two years of deliberation, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has finally issued its decision in United States v. Caronia, holding that the government cannot prosecute pharmaceutical manufacturers or their...more

Vigorous Canadian Anti-Corruption Enforcement Continues Unabated: Griffiths Energy Fined $10.3 Million Pursuant to the CFPOA

Griffiths Energy International Inc. (GEI) entered a guilty plea on January 22, 2013 to a criminal charge under section 3(1)(b) of Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA), and agreed to a fine in the amount...more

Short Wins - If The Circuits Are Only Going To Give One Victory To A Defendant In A Week, This Is A Pretty Good One

Perhaps our nation's circuit court judges took it easy last week because of the inauguration, or Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but there's only one case where a defendant won in a published opinion in a federal appellate court....more