The question of whether the False Claims Act (FCA) requires a showing of objective falsity will continue to divide the circuit courts following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to address the issue.

To establish liability under the FCA, which prohibits the defrauding of the government, an individual must demonstrate actual knowledge that the claim

With enactment of the CARES Act on March 27, Congress appropriated $2.2 trillion, the largest economic stimulus package in history, to combat COVID-19 and the serious economic damage it has wrought to all facets of the economy. Along with this mammoth government subsidy, however, comes the prospect of unprecedented fraud and abuse in sectors of

In a win for employers, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that “…the False Claims Act’s anti-retaliation provision unambiguously excludes relief for retaliatory acts occurring after the employee has left employment.” Potts v. Center for Excellence in Higher Education, Inc., No. 17-1143 (10th Cir. Nov. 6, 2018) (emphasis added).

Background

Debbi Potts,

We are seeing a growing number of False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729 – 3733 cases where defendants test the sufficiency of relators’ pleadings, which is the heightened pleading standard under Rule 9(b). Rule 9(b) acts as a gatekeeping function by requiring that “in alleging fraud” a “party must state with particularity the

The Justice Department announced that it secured over $3.5 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud against the government in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015 (“FY2015”). This is the fourth year in a row that the Justice Department has recovered more than $3.5 billion in cases under the False Claims

On November 18, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a decision dismissing an employment applicant’s claims that he had been retaliated against under the False Claims Act (FCA), Environmental Reorganization Act (ERA) and four other environmental statutes. In Vander Boegh v. Energy Solutions, Inc., 14-5047 (6th Cir. Nov.

The Justice Department announced that it secured a record $5.69 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud against the government in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014 (“FY2014”).  This marks the first time the Justice Department recovered more than $5 billion in these cases, bringing the total recoveries under the False

              Not only are pharmacies and those who prescribe Part D drugs increasingly becoming targets for whistleblowers with False Claims Act suits for kickbacks and other fraud-based conduct, they also need to be concerned with Medicare Part D insurers, who monitor pharmacies for abuse On May 19, 2014, as well as CMS (Centers for Medicare &

The Fifth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of two Relators’ claims brought under the Federal False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-3733 based on the Relators’ lack of personal knowledge of the information in their Complaint.  In requiring a federal False Claims Act relator to be an original source of the information underlying the