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Government Contracts
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October 23, 2012
Contractor Wants 2nd Shot At Texas Utility's Immunity Defense
An industrial contractor asked the Texas Supreme Court on Monday to revive its $12 million suit against San Antonio-owned CPS Energy, arguing an appellate court's ruling that the utility was immune from being sued on contractual grounds was unprecedented.
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October 22, 2012
Ex-Omnicare Worker Says Techs OK'd Prescriptions In FCA Suit
Nursing home pharmacy company Omnicare Inc. violated Medicare guidelines and breached the False Claims Act by allowing unlicensed pharmacy technicians to verify the accuracy of prescriptions, according to a lawsuit unsealed Friday in Florida federal court.
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October 19, 2012
Cargo Co. Overbilled For Humanitarian Food Storage, DOJ Says
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday hit Jacintoport International LLC with a False Claims Act suit, accusing the cargo-handling firm of overcharging the government for the storage of food for humanitarian crises.
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October 19, 2012
Ex-FBI Agent Indicted For Obstructing $54M Contracts Probe
A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City on Thursday indicted a former FBI special agent, the CEO of American International Security Corp. and their business partner in an alleged scheme to use the agent's position to stymie an investigation into a $54 million government contracts fraud.
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October 18, 2012
Military Contractor Draws Fire For Afghanistan Partying
Defense contractor Jorge Scientific Corp., hired by the U.S. military to train Afghan forces, is facing a False Claims Act whistleblower suit and a criminal probe over incidents shown in a video that surfaced Wednesday, in which Jorge employees were apparently drunk and using narcotics.
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October 16, 2012
OneWest, Soros Accused Of Mortgage Scam In FCA Suit
A Florida resident hit OneWest Bank and billionaire majority shareholder George Soros with a False Claims Act lawsuit Monday, saying that through their connections to President Barack Obama, they had finagled a loss-sharing deal with the government that allowed them to scam homeowners and taxpayers.
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October 16, 2012
Ex-State Dept. Official Charged With Taking Afghan Bribe
A former U.S. Department of State official was arrested by the FBI and accused of accepting a $30,000 bribe in connection with assistance he gave to an Afghan contractor, according to court documents unsealed on Monday.
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October 12, 2012
Nixon Peabody Sued Over $35M Bond In Bell Corruption Case
Nixon Peabody LLP was hit with a legal malpractice suit Thursday in California state court over its advisement on a $35 million bond deal that allegedly violated the False Claims Act and contributed to a corruption scandal in which former Bell city officials allegedly hid extravagant borrowing.
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October 12, 2012
Ship Repair Co. Fights Navy's $4.6M Damages Bill
A ship repair contractor hit the U.S. Department of the Navy with a suit Wednesday in Florida federal court, alleging it didn't owe the government $4.6 million for supposedly performing negligent and defective work on the engine of a propeller.
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October 11, 2012
NY Dorm Authority Sued Over $40.5M Project Delays
Building facade engineering and construction contractor Enclos Corp. on Tuesday sued the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, claiming delays in a $40.5 million college building exterior construction project cost it several million dollars.
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October 10, 2012
Ex-Client Says Patton Boggs Helped Market Rival Builder
Louisiana-based MB Industries LLC on Tuesday sued its former counsel Patton Boggs LLP, hired to help secure government contracts and international work, for allegedly representing a rival company and two former employees who joined the competitor.
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October 10, 2012
Allscripts Battles For $300M Hospital Records Contract
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. is fighting to block the award of a $300 million contract for electronic medical records in New York City's vast public hospital system, arguing that the cost of implementing a rival's proposal was grossly understated, city and company officials said Wednesday.
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October 9, 2012
US Hits Wells Fargo With FHA Mortgage Insurance Fraud Claims
The federal government sued Wells Fargo & Co. on Tuesday, alleging the country's largest mortgage originator defrauded a federal mortgage insurance program out of hundreds of millions of dollars by knowingly submitting mortgages with a high risk of default for more than 10 years.
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October 5, 2012
Essex Tries To Dodge Army's $3M Fire Damage Claim
Essex Insurance Co. Inc. has asked a Virginia federal judge for a declaratory judgment that it does not need to cover a $3 million insurance claim from the U.S. Army for property damage allegedly caused by a subcontractor's blowtorch mishap.
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October 4, 2012
US Sanctioned Over Lost Docs In CHS Medicare Fraud Suit
A New Mexico federal judge on Wednesday upheld a magistrate judge's recommendation that the government be sanctioned for failing to safeguard documents that may have aided hospital chain Community Health Systems Inc. in defending itself against a whistleblower's claims of Medicaid fraud.
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October 1, 2012
Ex-Orthofix Manager Charged In False Medicare Claim Scheme
A former sales manager for Texas-based Orthofix Inc. was charged in Pennsylvania on Friday for his role in a scheme to submit $250,000 in fraudulent Medicare claims for bone-growth stimulators that were not covered under the government insurance program.
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September 27, 2012
Entergy Sues US Over Breached Nuclear Waste Contract
An Entergy Co. unit sued the U.S. government Wednesday, seeking damages for what it calls the government's decadelong, ongoing failure to dispose of spent nuclear fuel at two power plants in Michigan, which it says breaches a waste disposal contract.
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September 26, 2012
Robotics Contractor Settles FCA Suit Over Army Billing
Applied Research Associates Inc. on Tuesday settled an ex-employee's whistleblower suit that had accused the company of fraudulently billing the U.S. Army for unrelated research in its government robotics contracts, including a project focused on land-mine detection, and retaliating against the employee when he told corporate management.
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September 24, 2012
Hawaiian Co. Sues Air Force Over In-Sourced Contract
A Hawaiian company sued the Air Force on Monday over an in-sourced personnel management contract, claiming that the military refused to turn over the analysis behind its conclusion that federal employees could perform the work less expensively than the contractor could.
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September 24, 2012
LabCorp Says VA Slammed Door On Its $32M Contract Bid
Laboratory Corp. of America sued the federal government Thursday for allegedly refusing to take its bid on a $32 million contract for testing services at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers, saying agency officials shut down the application process an hour earlier than advertised.
Expert Analysis
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What Sequestration Of Gov't Contracts Will Look Like
On March 1, the president will issue a sequestration order that requires federal agencies to make uniform percentage reductions in each separate line item in their budgets. Based on the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings sequestration in 1986, we can predict how the executive branch is likely to apply the sequester to government contracts, says John Cooney of Venable LLP.
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Another Stab At Limiting Pass-Through Subcontracting
In theory, Section 802 of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act would help cut out unnecessary middlemen and give the contracting officer more authority to limit pass-through contracts. In reality, the provision and its eventual implementing regulations are unlikely to see the light of day in an actual procurement, say Ken Weckstein and Aidan Delgado of Brown Rudnick LLP.
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Same FCA Question — Different Answers
So far this year, the Fourth, D.C. and Ninth Circuits have answered a question on the pleading standard necessitated by the False Claims Act: Does the complainant have to plead the existence of a false claim? These cases reflect the ongoing tension between many relators’ relative ignorance of internal billing records and the purpose of the FCA, says Cameron Ellis of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.
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How To Respond To Government Contract Delays And Changes
Across-the-board reductions in federal agency budgets are likely to be imposed beginning March 1. Federal contracts give the government the right to impose schedule delays in contractor performance, direct work stoppages and order changes in the delivery schedule, but the government does not have the right to impose the costs of those actions on contractors — provided the contractors take timely action to preserve their rights to compensation, says Jonathan Cain of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
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10 Ways To Maximize Success Of Gov't Contract Claims
There are 10 steps you should take to facilitate your ability to distinguish between potentially successful government contract claims and those that will only put money in your lawyer’s pockets. These steps will enhance the prospect that the claims you do pursue will be successful, and will serve to deprive the government of some of its more popular defenses, says John Chierichella of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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The Devil Is In 'Where To Disclose' Supply Chain Details
While most compliance and supply chain professionals by now generally appreciate the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act’s objective and basic mechanics, a visit to the homepage of your favorite manufacturer or retailer is likely to reveal that there continues to be a surprising level of confusion over something exceptionally basic: namely, where the disclosure must be announced, say attorneys with Perkins Coie LLP.
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7 Resolutions For Legal Industry Marketing In 2013
The New Year is still in its infancy, and there is no better time to craft a list of professional resolutions. To ease into the process, consider seven easy steps for super-charging your marketing and communications efforts in 2013, says Michael Bond of Blattel Communications.
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Ready Or Not, Final Compliance Guidelines Are Here
There are no more excuses for failing to adopt a comprehensive compliance program — the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a set of final compliance program guidelines applicable to sponsors, which serves as an important road map to health care providers for the development and refinement of compliance programs, say attorneys with Blank Rome LLP.
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Preparing Your Witness To Be A Performer
How do we prepare a witness, a layperson having no training in the art of litigation, to give an effective and memorable performance? A number of tips, when incorporated into your practice of law, will surely strengthen your witness's presentation at deposition and trial and the overall merits of your case, says Erika Ronquillo of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin PC.
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EMR Adoption May Be Riskier Than Expected
As has always been the case, with technology comes risk. And for the medical providers who adopt electronic medical records, that risk may include not only a lack of utility or benefit, but also heightened scrutiny, more frequent investigation and even the specter of prosecution by the very government that promoted the switch to EMRs in the first place, says Robert Radick of Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC.