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Government Contracts
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April 30, 2013
US Drops FCA Claim In Wells Fargo Mortgage Fraud Suit
Government lawyers on Monday withdrew part of a False Claims Act suit accusing Wells Fargo Bank NA of defrauding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by concealing the poor quality of mortgages, trimming a sweeping complaint the bank has denounced as unfair.
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April 29, 2013
Rakoff Casts Doubt On Gov't Claims In $1B BofA Fraud Suit
A federal judge on Monday indicated that he had doubts about an aspect of the government’s $1 billion suit against Bank of America Corp. over allegedly bad mortgages, questioning its novel use of a law designed to protect banks from fraud.
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April 29, 2013
Sens. Urge DOD To Cut Duplicative Spending
U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., pressed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to cut wasteful spending on military programs Monday, citing a recent report that found $95 billion in annual spending on overlapping programs across the federal government.
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April 29, 2013
Ex-Patient Drops DaVita FCA Suit Over Nurse-To-Patient Ratio
A former patient accusing DaVita Inc. of taking Medicare and Medicaid funds and flouting the programs’ rules by not providing its patients with a supposedly required nurse-to-patient ratio on Monday dropped her False Claims Act suit against the dialysis clinic chain.
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April 29, 2013
Fed. Circ. Ups Protection For Whistleblowers' Disclosures
The Federal Circuit stressed Friday that government whistleblowers are protected by federal law unless their disclosures are explicitly prohibited by another statute, reviving the case of an air marshal who was fired for leaking policy changes to a reporter.
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April 29, 2013
Burning Man Suit Against Nev. Officials Pared In Fed. Court
A Nevada federal judge on Friday trimmed claims from a contract suit brought by the organizers of the annual Burning Man festival against local officials over a county ordinance imposing steep fees on the annual arts gathering, finding fault with some of the organizers’ constitutional and preemption arguments.
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April 26, 2013
ISPs Skirt Privacy Law Under Military Cybersecurity Program
The federal government has granted AT&T Inc. and other Internet service providers participating in a recently expanded military cybersecurity program immunity from laws that prohibit them from intercepting private electronic communications, according to documents released by a privacy group Wednesday.
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April 26, 2013
Contractors Can Stay In IP Case As 3rd Parties, Judge Says
The repeal of an obsolete World War II-era federal statute did not eviscerate the ability of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to exercise subject matter jurisdiction over third-party defendants under the court's Rule 14, a federal judge overseeing a patent infringement suit ruled Thursday.
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April 26, 2013
SF State Official, Contractor Plead Not Guilty To Bribery
A former San Francisco State University official and one of the college's hazardous-waste contractors pled not guilty in California state court Friday to 246 felony charges stemming from an alleged seven-year cash-for-contracts bribery scheme that purportedly funneled $4 million in university funds into the contractor's coffers.
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April 26, 2013
FAA Dodges Sequester Cuts With $253M Congressional Bill
Congress gave $253 million to the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday to avoid sequestration cuts and put furloughed air traffic controllers back to work after staffing issues contributed to 40 percent of all flight delays in recent days.
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April 26, 2013
Trio Convicted For $33.5M Air Force Contract Fraud
A Texas federal jury on Thursday convicted three people for creating a sham business to win $33.5 million in U.S. Air Force subcontracts tied to modernizing medical systems, a scheme that prosecutors say netted the trio $6.4 million.
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April 26, 2013
Corinthian Colleges Workers Ask 9th Circ. To Salvage FCA Suit
Two former Corinthian Colleges Inc. employees on Thursday asked the Ninth Circuit to revive their whistleblower suit alleging the for-profit college and Ernst & Young LLP defrauded the federal government out of billions in education funds.
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April 26, 2013
Novartis Faces Another DOJ Suit Over Alleged Kickbacks
The U.S. Department of Justice hit Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. on Friday with allegations in New York federal court that the company defrauded federal health care programs by paying kickbacks to doctors, days after the DOJ sued Novartis over another alleged kickback scheme involving pharmacies.
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April 26, 2013
White House Names FTC's Shelanski To Lead Oversight Body
The White House on Thursday nominated Federal Trade Commission official and former Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP attorney Howard Shelanski to head the government oversight body that reviews all agency draft regulations before they are published.
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April 26, 2013
DC Metro Backs Out Of Troubled $112M Transit Hub
In the wake of Maryland officials' discovery of serious flaws in the construction of a $112 million transit center linking lines to Washington, D.C., the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has refused to operate the facility as originally planned, the authority confirmed to Law360 on Friday.
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April 25, 2013
Foley Adds Former K&L Health Care Pro To Boston Team
Foley & Lardner LLP has snagged a seasoned health care regulatory attorney from K&L Gates LLP as of counsel on its health care team in Boston, the firm announced Thursday.
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April 25, 2013
Fla. City Sues Contractors Over Shoddy Construction Work
The city of Jacksonville, Fla. has launched a suit against contractors it hired to build the city’s main downtown library and parking garage, saying that after the project was complete, it discovered numerous defects stemming from shoddy construction work.
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April 25, 2013
Ex-State Dept. Worker, Hubby Charged In $60M Contract Scam
A Virginia federal grand jury Thursday indicted a former U.S. Department of State contract specialist and her husband on charges alleging the couple ran a secret scheme to steer more than $60 million in government contracts to a company they controlled.
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April 25, 2013
Military Counselors Win Class Cert. In Wage Dispute
A California federal judge on Thursday conditionally certified a class of about 5,000 counselors working at U.S. military bases who claim military contractor Managed Health Network Inc. misclassified them in order to avoid paying overtime wages, ruling the plaintiffs were in a substantially similar position when the alleged harm occurred.
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April 25, 2013
Overseas Shipholding's $94M Military Contract Approved
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Wednesday said Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. can go forward with its $94 million U.S. government contract to make ships and commercial transportation resources available during times of war or national emergency.
Expert Analysis
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FCA Trends Health Care Providers Should Expect In 2013
From the perspective of False Claims Act results, 2012 was a decidedly mixed year for health care providers. If 2013 trends follow the path of 2012, providers will continue to face increasing numbers of FCA claims. But they may take some comfort in knowing that judicial skepticism toward the most aggressive FCA prosecutions may be growing and with it the likelihood of providers’ ultimate success in those cases, say attorneys with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.
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The Year Of The ACO And Trends For The Future
While 2012 saw increased interest in accountable care organizations, 2013 will likely be the year that we begin to work out many of the issues involved in providing services through an ACO, and some of the euphoria of ACOs may be tempered by unexpected risks, says Mark Mattioli of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin LLP.
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Guidance For Contractors On CDA Statute Of Limitations
Government contractors have long looked for more definitive guidance as to when a government claim accrues, thereby starting the six-year statute-of-limitations period for timely assertion of the claim under the Contract Disputes Act. A recent Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals decision has shed more light on when the government should have the requisite knowledge to present a claim under the CDA, say Paul Pompeo and William Speros of Arnold & Porter LLP.
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Budget Cuts: Don't Forget About Your Rights, Contractors
When Congress reached a deal over the New Year’s holiday to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, many government contractors breathed a sigh of relief. But the toughest issues were not resolved. And while some of the answers may come from Washington soon, contractors should not overlook their contracts as the primary source that governs their rights, say Kenneth Weckstein and Shlomo Katz of Brown Rudnick LLP.
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A Look Back At FCA Developments In 2012
At the close of the 2012 government fiscal year, the United States had recovered some $4.9 billion in False Claims Act settlements and judgments, which included a number of single recoveries in excess of $1 billion each. A recap of some of the significant judicial decisions from 2012 illustrates that this trend will continue into 2013 and beyond, say Dave Nadler and David Yang of Dickstein Shapiro LLP.
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Preserving The Economic Stability Of An Energy Project
Economic stability is one of the most important issues for a sponsor to consider when investing in a project in a foreign country, especially when dealing with industries such as the export of energy and other natural resources. For this reason, sponsors are well advised to insist on a robust economic stability clause in an investment contract with a host country government, says Pete Musgrove of King & Spalding LLP.
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The Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol: Where Are We Now?
The Medicare Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol offers a method for providers and suppliers to resolve violations of the physician self-referral statute and permits reduced liability for any Stark Law violations. The financial impact of submitting a disclosure under the protocol is far from predictable, and from a procedural standpoint, providers can expect significant time lags, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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No More Vet-Owned Set-Aside Protests At The GAO
The U.S. Government Accountability Office's position that it no longer will hear Federal Supply Schedule set-aside-based protests is surprising and disappointing from the perspective of protesters seeking an ally in the GAO in pursuing grievances against the U.S. Veterans Administration for not preferring veteran-owned businesses in its FSS procurements, say Lawrence Prosen and Christian Henel of Thompson Hine LLP.
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Pitfalls Of Presidential Inauguration Festivities
At the U.S. Capitol, workers are already busy constructing the platform for President Obama’s Jan. 21, 2013, inauguration. Many corporations and individuals are now being asked to participate in festivities that surround that event. While less regulated than pre-election political activities, presidential inaugurations are nonetheless subject to a number of easily overlooked rules — in particular three common situations in which individuals and corporations might run into trouble if they are not careful, say Robert Kelner and Zachary Parks of Covington & Burling LLP.
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Pros And Cons Of Proposed Medicare Smart Cards
Recently, in a hearing held by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health, several witnesses addressed using smart cards as a method of health care fraud prevention. It is hoped that such smart cards will prevent bogus providers from successfully stealing funds from the Medicare program, but some individuals are skeptical about the cards' effectiveness, says Frederick Robinson of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.