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A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against APL Limited who is accused of overcharging and double-billing the Department of Defense. The whistleblower will receive a $5.2 million share of the government's recovery.

The whistleblower case, filed in October 2004, alleged that APL, a wholly-owned American subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines Limited, knowingly overcharged and double-billed the Department of Defense to transport thousands of containers from ports to inland delivery destinations in Iraq and Afghanistan by inflating its invoices in several ways. For example, APL billed in excess of the rate it paid to plug refrigerated containers holding perishable cargo into a source of electricity at a port in Karachi, Pakistan; billed in excess of the contractual rate to maintain the operation of refrigerated containers at a port in Karachi and at U.S. military bases in Afghanistan; and billed for various non-reimbursable services performed by APL’s subcontractor at a Kuwaiti port.

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against PAE Government Services Inc (PAE) and RM Asia (HK) Limited (RM Asia). They are accused of violating the False Claims Act by taking part in a bid-rigging scheme that resulted in false claims for payment under a U.S. Army contract for services in Afghanistan.

The whislteblower will receive a $261,000 share of the government's recovery.

The whistleblower case, filed in 2011, alleged that former managers of PAE and RM Asia funneled subcontracts paid for by the government to companies owned by the former managers and their relatives by using confidential bid information to ensure that their companies would beat out other, honest competitors.   

In a related criminal investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia previously obtained guilty pleas from former PAE program manager Keith Johnson; Johnson’s wife, Angela Gregory Johnson; and RM Asia’s former project manager, John Eisner, and deputy project manager, Jerry Kieffer, for their roles in the scheme.

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against St. Jude Medical Inc in St.Paul, MN, who is accused of  inflating the cost of replacement pacemakers and defibrillators purchased by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

The whistleblowers will receive $730,000 from the settlement amount.

The case, filed in August 2008, alleged that St. Jude actively marketed its pacemakers and defibrillators by touting the generous credits available should a device need to be replaced while covered under warranty. At the same time, St. Jude allegedly knew that it failed to grant appropriate credits to the purchasers of devices in a large number of cases where a product was replaced while still under warranty. As a result, the United States contended that St. Jude submitted invoices to Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and Department of Defense military treatment facilities that overstated the cost for replacement pacemakers or defibrillators.

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Science Applications International Corporation who is accused of charging inflated prices under grants to train first responder personnel to prevent and respond to terrorism attacks.

The whistleblower's share of the recovery has not been determined. 

The case, filed in February 2012, alleged that SAIC’s cost proposals falsely represented that SAIC would use far more expensive personnel to carry out its efforts than it intended to use and actually did use, resulting in inflated charges to the United States.

Between 2002 and 2012, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) received six federal grants from the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to train first responder personnel to prevent and respond to terrorism events involving explosive devices.  New Mexico Tech awarded subgrants to SAIC to provide course management, development, and instruction.

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Tennessee Orthopaedic Clinics PC and Appalachian Orthopaedic Clinics PC. They are accused of knowingly billing state and federal health care programs for reimported osteoarthritis medications, known as viscosupplements.

Tennessee Orthopaedic Clinics PC will pay $1.3 million, and Appalachian Orthopaedic Clinics PC will pay $550,000. The whistleblower will receive a $323,750 share of the recovery.

The case, filed in February 2012, alleged that the clinics knowingly purchased deeply discounted viscosupplements that were reimported from foreign countries and billed them to state and federal health care programs in order to profit from the reimbursement system, when such reimported viscosupplements were not reimbursable by those programs.  Allegedly, the reimported product included labeling in foreign languages and in English for additional uses not approved in the United States, which demonstrated that the product was reimported.  Moreover, because the product was reimported, the government alleged there was no manufacturer assurance that it had not been tampered with or that it was stored appropriately.   

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Frazier Masonry Corp, F-Y Inc, CTI Concrete & Masonry Inc, Masonry Technology Inc, Masonry Works Inc, Russell Frazier and Robert Yowell.  They are accused of misrepresenting their disadvantaged small business status in connection with military construction contracts.

The whistleblower will receive a $393,383 share of the recovery.

This settlement stems from other cases, the first of which was filed in 2012.  The United States alleged the defendant masonry subcontractors and their principals misrepresented to the prime contractors that they were small businesses, and that these misrepresentations caused the prime contractors to falsely certify that they had complied with the small business provisions of the contracts in claiming payment.  Russell Frazier previously pleaded guilty in related criminal proceedings to causing false statements.

A settlement has been reached to resolve False Claims Act allegations against Detroit Medical Center who is accused of engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians.

The government learned of the statutory violations from Detroit Medical Center, itself, which discovered improper financial relationships with a number of physicians as it prepared for the sale to Vanguard Health Systems Inc.

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Hewlett-Packard Co who is accused of defrauding the General Services Administration (GSA) and other federal agencies.

The whitsleblowers' recovery amount was not disclosed.

The allegations made were from a whistleblower case that was originally filed in 2004.  The United States alleged that HP knowingly paid kickbacks, or “influencer fees,” to systems integrator companies in return for recommendations that federal agencies purchase HP’s products.  The settlement also resolves claims that HP’s 2002 contract with the GSA was defectively priced because HP provided incomplete information to GSA contracting officers during contract negotiations. 

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against Rush University Medical Center who is accused of submitting false claims to Medicare.

The whistleblowers will receive $270,760 in relation to the settlement with Rush, however the original case was filed in 2004 against many other defendants with similar allegations.

The United States alleged that Rush entered into prohibited financial relationships with certain physicians during the period 2000 through 2007 by entering into certain leasing arrangements for office space with two individual physicians and three physician practice groups that violated the Stark Law.

A settlement has been to resolve False Claims Act allegations against St. John Health System who is accused of paying physicians or physician groups to induce referrals for medical services.

In April 2008, St. John submitted a self-disclosure report to the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Inspector General that acknowledged that the physician agreements may have run afoul of federal law. The settlement resulted from the company’s disclosure.

The United States determined that St. John made payments to 23 individual physicians or physician groups to induce referrals for medical services.