Government Contracts & Whistleblower Legislation News

The federal government is going after Lance Armstrong’s money. As much as it can get. The Justice Department unveiled its formal complaint against Armstrong on Tuesday, saying the cyclist violated his contract with the U.S. Postal Service and was “unjustly enriched” while cheating to win the Tour de France.

Biotech firm Amgen Inc. has agreed to pay $24.9 million to resolve a whistleblower's claims that it paid kickbacks to pharmacies so that patients in nursing homes would be prescribed its anemia drug. 

In a blistering report, Republican lawmakers sharply criticized Labor secretary nominee Thomas Perez over what they said was a questionable deal he brokered while serving as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Mr. Perez was the driving force behind a quid pro quo that last year saw the City of St. Paul, Minnesota withdraw a Supreme Court case, Magner v. Gallagher, in exchange for the feds not joining two False Claims Act cases against the city. 

A federal jury has found State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. committed fraud against the federal government and submitted a false record to support fraud after Hurricane Katrina.

A federal appeals court in Massachusetts reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Aetna accusing Pfizer of illegally promoting the off-label use of Neurontin, the first victory after a long chain of defeats for plaintiff lawyers pursuing so-called “third-party payer” litigation on behalf of insurance companies and health plans.

A federal appeals court on Monday overturned an $11 million judgment against the diagnostic imaging company MedQuest Associates Inc, rejecting claims that the firm violated the False Claims Act by flouting certain Medicare requirements.

Omnicare Inc, a pharmaceutical services company, has won dismissal of a lawsuit accusing its executives of misleading shareholders about its compliance with Medicaid and Medicare laws.

A federal appeals court has reversed a district judge's determination of what constitutes triple damages under the federal False Claims Act, in a case against a mortgage company that lied when applying for federal loan guarantees.

In a state court appeal that could have repercussions for how drugmakers are prosecuted for their marketing strategies, Louisiana is claiming that Johnson & Johnson violated a state anti-fraud statute when it disseminated promotional materials for Risperdal, an antipsychotic medication.