On February 18, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a significant decision in United States v. Cardenas, vacating a drug conspiracy conviction and remanding the case for a new trial. The opinion...more
2/23/2026
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Criminal Appeals ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Defense ,
Criminal Procedure ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Defense Strategies ,
Drug Trafficking ,
Evidence ,
Federal Rules of Evidence ,
Government Investigations ,
Intent ,
Jury Trial ,
Mens Rea ,
Vacated
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced recoveries exceeding $6.8 billion under the False Claims Act (FCA) in 2025.1 This total—the highest in the FCA’s 160-year history—underscores the DOJ’s continued commitment...more
1/22/2026
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Qui Tam ,
Settlement ,
Whistleblowers
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that it was expanding the Criminal Division’s Health Care Fraud Unit’s Strike Force (Strike Force) to the District of Massachusetts. This move is a clear sign that health...more
11/20/2025
/ Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Investigations ,
Life Sciences ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) initial attempts to carry out the White House’s goal of eliminating gender-affirming health care to minors have hit substantial roadblocks. As one example, a federal court in Massachusetts...more
10/1/2025
/ Administrative Authority ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Court Litigation ,
Gender Dysphoria ,
Gender Identity ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Hospitals ,
Investigations ,
Minor Children ,
Misbranding ,
Subpoenas
On May 19, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum titled Civil Rights Fraud Initiative announcing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) plan to use the False Claims Act (FCA) to “aggressively” pursue...more
5/23/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Colleges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Relators ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Risk Management ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
Last week, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Head of the Criminal Division Matthew R. Galeotti announced key changes to the DOJ’s enforcement priorities during his keynote address at the Securities Industry and Financial...more
In October 2024, we wrote about U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle’s dismissal of a whistleblower action, deeming the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) unconstitutional. The Department of Justice (DOJ)...more
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York last week announced the resolution of two significant False Claims Act (FCA) cases—one from a large settlement and the other the result of a jury verdict after...more
On March 10, 2025, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York issued a decision in the case of United States v. Tavberidze, finding Section 3E1.1(b) of the United States Sentencing Guidelines in...more
Introduction: In its recent decision in United States v. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit deepened an existing federal circuit court split regarding the causation...more
At the Federal Bar Association’s annual qui tam conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 20, 2025, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Commercial Litigation Branch, Michael Granston, said...more
2/24/2025
/ Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud ,
Government Agencies ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
International Trade ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Trump Administration
In January, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act (FCA) exceeded $2.9 billion in fiscal year 2024, bringing the total amount of settlements and judgments under the...more
2/5/2025
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cybersecurity ,
Defense Contracts ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fraud ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Medicare Advantage ,
Opioid ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Settlement ,
Stark Law ,
Whistleblowers
In an unusual criminal prosecution, the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (CRMC), a hospital in Chesapeake, Virginia, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Virginia for conspiring to defraud the United States and...more
1/21/2025
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Fraud ,
Grand Juries ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Hospital Privileges ,
Hospitals ,
Indictments ,
Medicare ,
Physicians ,
Principles for Business ,
Reimbursements ,
Unnecessary Medical Procedures
Compared with other issues, healthcare enforcement during President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming second term has received little attention. When he takes office again on January 20, should industry actors like pharmaceutical...more
1/6/2025
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Bad Actors ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Clinical Laboratories ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Hospitals ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Trump Administration