Higher educational institutions have experienced outsized attention in the early days of the second Trump Administration. A trio of three recent executive orders suggests that the Administration’s focus on higher education is...more
4/28/2025
/ Accreditation ,
Colleges ,
Department of Education ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Funding ,
Higher Education Act ,
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
As the business community adjusts to the reality of the Trump Administration’s sweeping new tariff regime, importers and other organizations that rely on imports should be mindful that with the expansion and sharp increases...more
4/22/2025
/ Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Importers ,
Imports ,
International Trade ,
Penalties ,
Tariffs ,
Trump Administration ,
Whistleblowers
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Granston laid out the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) priorities over the next four years at the Federal Bar Association’s annual qui tam conference in Washington, D.C. last week....more
On February 5, 2025, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a series of fourteen policy memoranda directed to all employees of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”). Two are particularly likely to impact companies and higher...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released the fiscal year (FY) 2024 (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024) statistics on qui tam and non-qui tam actions under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729, et seq....more
1/28/2025
/ Cybersecurity ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Statistics ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Medicare Advantage ,
Opioid ,
Qui Tam ,
Settlement ,
Whistleblowers
On January 21, the President issued an Executive Order with significant impact for Federal contractors and grantees. The EO upsets settled rules related to affirmative action plans and Department of Labor enforcement...more
1/23/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
OFCCP ,
Public Employees ,
Qui Tam ,
Trump Administration ,
Whistleblowers
The day-to-day operations of healthcare and the Rules of Evidence might seem unrelated, but in today’s enforcement environment, legal and compliance professionals can find, in evidentiary rules, best practices for creating a...more
Cybersecurity requirements for federal contractors and grantees continue to proliferate—and those requirements do not just come with contractual risk. Increasingly, the United States government is leveraging enforcement...more
9/5/2024
/ Compliance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) ,
Data Security ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DFARS ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
False Statements ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fraud ,
Self-Certification ,
Universities ,
Whistleblowers
The federal government awards billions of dollars each year in sponsored research funding to institutions of higher education, academic research institutions, non-profit organizations, and companies—making federal grants an...more
5/30/2024
/ Accounting ,
Accounting Standards ,
Educational Institutions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
False-Certification of Conformance ,
Federal Funding ,
Federal Grants ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Fraudulent Inducement ,
Materiality ,
National Institute of Health (NIH) ,
Pleading Standards ,
Research and Development ,
Sponsors ,
Whistleblowers
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced recently that settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729, et seq. (FCA) totaled approximately $2.7 billion in FY 2023 (October 1, 2022 – September 30,...more
3/12/2024
/ Civil Investigation Demand ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Enforcement Statistics ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud and Abuse ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Kickbacks ,
Medicare Advantage ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Qui Tam ,
Third-Party Liability ,
Whistleblowers
The government has been actively investigating and prosecuting Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP” or the “Program”) fraud ever since the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) rolled out the Program in the Spring of...more
In the Spring of 2020, the Small Business Association (“SBA”) began administering the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP” or the “Program”) to provide SBA-backed loans to help eligible businesses maintain their workforces...more
10/1/2021
/ Certification Requirements ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud ,
Lenders ,
Loan Forgiveness ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
SBA ,
SBA Lending Programs ,
Small Business
Civil litigation by private parties alleging False Claims Act (“FCA”) violations related to Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) fraud appears to be heating up. On September 22, 2021, a former restaurant manager filed a...more
On January 12, 2021, the Eastern District of California entered into a civil settlement with a Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) borrower and its CEO to resolve allegations of fraud. The settlement stemmed from a $350,000...more
1/15/2021
/ CARES Act ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
FIRREA ,
Fraud ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Qui Tam ,
Settlement
On January 8, 2021, in the first appellate decision of the year addressing a False Claims Act case, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the summary judgment dismissal of relators’ claims that a manufacturer of allergenic extracts...more
1/12/2021
/ Appeals ,
Dismissals ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Protected Activity ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Relators ,
Scienter ,
Universal Health Services Inc v United States ex rel Escobar
The CARES Act allocated $100 billion in relief funds to hospitals and other healthcare providers, to be distributed by the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) through the Public Health and Social Services...more
Earlier this month, the United States Department of Justice issued a press release to announce recoveries of over $3 billion from False Claims Act cases in FY2019. In making the announcement, Assistant Attorney General Jody...more
1/28/2020
/ Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Dismissals ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Statistics ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Materiality ,
Qui Tam ,
Relators ,
The Granston Memo ,
Universal Health Services Inc v United States ex rel Escobar ,
Whistleblowers
The United States government has an arsenal of agencies and civil and criminal statutes at its disposal to choose from in investigating and combatting healthcare fraud. A recent federal indictment discussed below exemplifies...more
12/20/2019
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Bribery ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
False Statements ,
Government Investigations ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Indictments ,
Kickbacks ,
Safe Harbors ,
SDVOSB ,
Statutory Penalties ,
Treble Damages ,
Veterans Administration
The False Claims Act (“FCA”) is an ever-present concern among health care providers and counsel, which is why it is no surprise that the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recent “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated...more
The past 18 months have been a (relatively) wild time for the False Claims Act - on the books since 1863. In FY2018 the Department of Justice obtained more than $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments from cases involving...more
8/26/2019
/ Appointments Clause ,
Article III ,
Cochise Consultancy Inc v United States ex rel Hunt ,
Cooperation ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud ,
Materiality ,
Objective Falsity ,
Qui Tam ,
Relators ,
Separation of Powers ,
Split of Authority ,
Standing ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Tolling ,
Universal Health Services Inc v United States ex rel Escobar
The United States Department of Justice this month released a revised and consolidated set of guidelines for determining cooperation credit for organizations facing exposure under the False Claims Act. The consolidated...more
On May 13, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Cochise Consultancy, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Hunt, No. 18–325, and resolved a circuit split regarding the statute of limitations for an FCA claim brought by a relator...more
5/16/2019
/ Appeals ,
Cause of Action Accrual ,
Cochise Consultancy Inc v United States ex rel Hunt ,
Dismissals ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Intervenors ,
Limitation Periods ,
Qui Tam ,
Reaffirmation ,
Relators ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Tolling
This month the Department of Justice brought a “first of its kind” action against two pharmacies, their owner, and three pharmacists for allegedly dispensing and billing Medicare for prescriptions in violation of both the...more
The Justice Department announced in a recent press release that it obtained more than $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments from cases involving fraud and false claims against the government. The vast majority of this...more
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, is in the news for a June 2018 memo to top Justice Department officials criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s obstruction-of-justice investigation. ...more