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May 24, 2013
Whistleblower Hits Ascentia With Medicare FCA Suit
A former employee of Ascentia Home Health Care LLC has hit the Florida-based health care provider with a suit alleging it falsely cashed in on Medicare reimbursements for unnecessary or nonexistent services and provided kickbacks to physicians for referrals.
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May 24, 2013
B&L Unit To Pay $34M For Drug Marketing Guilty Plea: DOJ
A Bausch & Lomb Inc. affiliate will cough up $33.5 million as part of an agreement copping to federal charges that it promoted an anti-inflammatory eye-treatment drug for unapproved new uses that were billed to federal health programs, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
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May 24, 2013
F-35 Estimate Falls By $4.5B In Project's 1st Cost Reduction
The estimated cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter dropped for the first time after a 12-year streak of cost increases, and a Thursday report from the Pentagon now expects its most expensive weapons program to cost $391.3 billion, a $4.5 billion drop from last year's estimate.
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May 24, 2013
Law360 Names 10 FCPA Powerhouse Firms
Many savvy law firms boast their expertise in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters, but an elite group of 10 firms have emerged as true leaders in the fast-growing field, earning them a spot on Law360’s inaugural list of FCPA Powerhouses.
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May 24, 2013
La. Grand Jury Probes $197M Medicaid Contract With IT Firm
The Louisiana Attorney General's Office said Friday it has impaneled a state grand jury to investigate possible criminal activity involving a $197 million Medicaid contract that Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration awarded to information technology and outsourcing provider Client Network Services Inc.
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May 24, 2013
GSA Says Strategic Sourcing Saves $300M In Wireless Costs
The General Services Administration awarded a governmentwide contract Wednesday for discounted wireless services and mobile devices, which, according to the agency, will save $300 million over five years.
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May 24, 2013
Ex-Smith & Nephew Exec Loses Sanctions Bid In FCA Suit
A Tennessee federal judge Thursday denied an ex-Smith & Nephew Inc. executive's bid to sanction the medical device maker for failing to produce data in a False Claims Act suit alleging it misrepresented the country of origin of products sold to the government, finding the information sought isn't available.
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May 24, 2013
DOD Needs To Improve Contractor Record Keeping, GAO Says
The U.S. Department of Defense needs to do a better job of keeping track of all of its contractors and what they do, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report Thursday that recommends that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel himself get involved in the effort.
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May 24, 2013
Gov't Staffing Contractor Dodges Credit Report Class Action
A Virginia judge dismissed a putative class action accusing government staffing contractor SOS International Ltd. of improperly using credit reports to screen job candidates on Thursday, saying the plaintiff was not actually denied employment on the basis of a negative report.
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May 24, 2013
IT Co. Can't Shake False Claims Suit Over DOJ Work
Information technology company Satory Global LLC must face allegations it billed the U.S. Department of Justice for work it did on its own behalf and wrongly fired a pair of whistleblowers, a Washington federal judge ruled Thursday.
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May 23, 2013
DOD Acquisition Reports Show No Major Cost Spikes
The Defense Department's annual acquisition reports, released Thursday, showed no major cost spikes for large weapons procurements for the first time in more than a decade, and DOD officials attributed the change to smarter acquisition practices.
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May 23, 2013
Contractor Pleads Guilty In $31M NASA Kickbacks Scheme
A former employee of a Florida aerospace agency pled guilty Thursday to his role in a $31 million kickback scheme that defrauded NASA, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security by securing contracts reserved for minority small business owners.
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May 23, 2013
Air Force Base Bribery Schemers Get Prison Time
A former civil engineer at Sheppard Air Force Base and two government contractors, who pled guilty last year to their roles in a bribery conspiracy to unlawfully disclose and obtain sensitive government contact information, were given prison sentences Thursday in Texas federal court.
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May 23, 2013
Obama Floats In-Kind Deal In Boeing Aircraft Contract Row
President Barack Obama has asked Congress to authorize the secretary of the Navy to receive payment in-kind for the settlement of a decadeslong legal fight with Boeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp. over a $4.8 billion aircraft contract.
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May 23, 2013
States Want NRC To Expand Waste Storage Study's Scope
The states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont on Wednesday urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand its court-ordered review of radioactive waste storage at nuclear power plants, including exploring the option of halting nuclear plant operations until the NRC devises an acceptable and permanent storage solution.
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May 23, 2013
SIGAR Defends Contractor Tax Report From Afghan Criticism
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction struck back Wednesday against the Afghan Ministry of Finance's criticism of its report on improper taxes levied against U.S. contractors, saying the ministry was wrong to try to paint the report as the grumblings of tax scofflaws.
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May 23, 2013
Obama Calls For Phased Ending Of War On Terror
President Barack Obama said Thursday that his administration is making efforts to narrow the scope of the war against al-Qaida by limiting the targeted drone strikes that have killed four Americans, closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and reining in the legal authority for the 12-year war on terrorist groups.
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May 23, 2013
Hertz, Avis Say Chicago Making Them Pay For $800M Project
The Hertz Corp., Avis Budget Car Rental LLC and two other rental car companies urged an Illinois judge on Wednesday to halt a Chicago airport's “do-or-die" public bid process, slated to go live Friday, alleging that the city has unlawfully changed lease practices to pay for a modernization project whose costs could exceed $800 million.
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May 23, 2013
Ex-Goldman Banker Settles SEC Pay-To-Play Case
A former Goldman Sachs & Co. investment banker has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle claims that his work on the gubernatorial campaign of a Massachusetts state treasurer scored the firm lucrative municipal underwriting business, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.
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May 23, 2013
Daiichi Sankyo Mulls Legal Action Over Ranbaxy Settlements
Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. is weighing litigation against certain former shareholders of its majority-owned Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., saying Wednesday that it believed the shareholders had covered up critical information over tainted drug investigations leading to a recent $500 million U.S. civil and criminal settlement.
Expert Analysis
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Workplace Agencies Tighten Belts For Sequestration
Federal workplace agencies are taking a number of steps in response to the recent sequestration budget cuts, and employers who are parties to agency charges, lawsuits or other administrative proceedings before these agencies should expect effects such as delays in processing and investigation of complaints and petitions, says Seth Neulight of Nixon Peabody LLP.
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COFC Is Siding With Protesters In Late Proposal Disputes
If you submit a proposal on time but the government rejects it as late, take your protest to the Court of Federal Claims. That’s the lesson of a run of recent COFC decisions, capped by Insight Systems Corp. v. United States, say attorneys with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
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Contracting In A Perfect Storm Of Enforcement Risk: Part 1
Recent legislative developments and shifting enforcement priorities have caused the risks posed by the False Claims Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to spiral to astronomical levels. The interplay between these trends and increased reliance on administrative exclusion is potentially devastating to government contractors, say attorneys with Covington & Burling LLP.
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6 Ways The ACA May Increase Federal Contractors’ Costs
Federal contractors face significant cost increases and compliance requirements as a result of the health insurance reforms in the Affordable Care Act. To minimize costs and compliance risks in the future, companies should take a number of steps in the coming months, say attorneys with Arnold & Porter LLP.
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DOD's Proposal Checklist: A Useful Tool With Some Risks
While the U.S. Department of Defense's new “proposal adequacy checklist" very well may prove to aid defense contractors in preparing more thorough, accurate and complete proposals, the checklist also provides another opportunity for mistakes in a proposal, says Ryan Bradel of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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US V. MedQuest Is Important For Health Care FCA Cases
The Sixth Circuit recently reversed an $11.1 million False Claims Act judgment in U.S. v. MedQuest Associates. The court's refusal to impose the FCA’s “extraordinary penalties” on violations of technical and local Medicare program requirements represents significant precedent for health care providers facing an FCA suit, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.
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A New Procedural Trend In Qui Tam FCA Cases
As the federal government faces increased pressure from courts and Congress to speed up intervention decisions in qui tam False Claims Act cases, it is starting to respond by postponing those decisions until after the cases have been unsealed, which could drastically impact how these cases are litigated while the government is waiting in the wings, say attorneys with Nixon Peabody LLP.
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What Cyberlock Teaches Us About Teaming Agreements
Following the recent ruling in Cyberlock Consulting Inc. v. Info. Experts Inc. that nonspecific teaming agreements are unenforceable, government contractors that work together to secure a contract award should make the terms of their agreements as definitive as possible, say attorneys with Venable LLP.
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Yet Another Cliff-Hanging OIG Report
In its ongoing series of studies and audits, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General recently released its report on Medicare hospice and general inpatient care. While the report clearly shows the OIG's concern for the substantial percentage of hospices not providing GIP, it also leaves several questions unanswered, say attorneys with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.