Category: News

The Supreme Court on Thursday handed down a unanimous decision in U.S. ex rel. Escobar v. Universal Health Services, Inc. to resolve the circuit split over the validity of the implied certification theory of liability under the False Claims Act. The case involved services billed to the U.S. Government’s health care programs by unlicensed providers acting without...

A bill to reform the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by creating a private cause of action has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO). Courts have universally held that there is no private right to sue under the FCPA at present. The bill is called the Foreign Business Bribery...

There haven’t been a lot of large fines handed down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission because of hacking yet but more may be on their way in the wake of recent public comments coming out of the SEC. In May, SEC Chair Mary Jo White called cyber security the biggest risk to the...

The SEC whistleblower program seems to be hitting its stride recently, with five whistleblowers awarded more than $26 million over the past month. The latest reward was $17 million, the second largest to date, for a detailed tip by a former company employee that substantially advanced a government investigation. The recipient was one of five...

The Supreme Court will undertake review of another False Claims Act case after accepting the petition of State Farm to reconsider the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in U.S. ex rel. Rigsby v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. The case turns on the appropriate consequences of a violation of the False Claims Act’s seal...

The Department of Labor has finalized regulations to require overtime pay to approximately 4.2 million salaried workers. In order for a business to claim that an employee is eligible for the overtime exemption as an executive, administrative or professional worker under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) past November, the individual will need to make...

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday announced an award of $3.5 million to a whistleblower that bolstered an existing investigation. The government has now paid $62 million to 28 whistleblowers since the SEC whistleblower program was opened in 2011. The government’s press release encouraged individuals to come forward “even if they think the SEC...

From 2013 to 2015, Medicare paid out a total of $125 billion under the Medicare Fee-For-Service program according to a recent article in Bloomberg. The improper payment rates exceeded 10% for all three years examined. As a result, the U.S. Government required a report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector...