The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or the Department) has published statistics on False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments for fiscal year (FY) 2024, a year in which the Department saw the highest number of qui tam...more
2/5/2025
/ Cybersecurity ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Statistics ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Government Agencies ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
PHI ,
Qui Tam ,
Whistleblowers
Whistleblower programs are the gifts that keep giving to enforcement agencies, driving a record number of cases, sanctions and awards across multiple agencies. In this ninth installment of Season's Readings, we revisit some...more
12/20/2024
/ Appointments Clause ,
Article II ,
CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Enforcement Statistics ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
FinCEN ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
Late last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its complaint-in-intervention in a qui tam lawsuit against the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), alleging that the university failed to meet certain...more
8/28/2024
/ Compliance ,
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DFARS ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
False Statements ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fraud ,
Implied Certification ,
Internal Controls ,
Invoices ,
NIST ,
Qui Tam ,
Security and Privacy Controls ,
Universities ,
US Air Force ,
Whistleblowers
After announcing at the ABA White Collar Crime Conference last winter that it would engage in a months-long "policy sprint," the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) released its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot...more
8/6/2024
/ CFTC ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Extortion ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Healthcare ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on June 6, 2024, published a Final Rule (the Rule) to eliminate self-certification for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) whose federal government contracts...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) has published statistics on False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments for fiscal year (FY) 2023, noting that this was the highest number of settlements and judgments...more
Continuing its focus on incentivizing prompt and voluntary self-disclosure of criminal misconduct, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced earlier this month a new U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Safe Harbor Policy...more
10/23/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Compliance ,
Cooperation ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Declination ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement ,
Mergers ,
Policy Statement ,
Remediation ,
Safe Harbors ,
Voluntary Disclosure
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in U.S. ex rel. Polansky that the federal government has the authority to dismiss a False Claims Act (FCA) suit at any stage of litigation, even over a relator's objections, so long as the...more
6/26/2023
/ Article II ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Judicial Intervention ,
Lack of Authority ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Qui Tam ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Relators ,
SCOTUS ,
United States ex rel Polansky v Executive Health Resources Inc ,
Whistleblowers
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 1, 2023, unanimously settled a pivotal dispute over the subjective versus objective standard for scienter under the False Claims Act (FCA). In this case, U.S. ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu Inc.,...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 18, 2023, heard oral arguments on a critical issue in False Claims Act (FCA) cases – the defendant's state of mind (i.e., scienter). The statute ascribes liability to anyone who "knowingly"...more
The U.S. Attorney's Offices (USAOs) Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy, announced on Feb. 22, 2023, sets forth a nationwide standard for how USAOs will define and credit corporate self-disclosures of misconduct by employees or...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Feb. 7, 2023, released its annual statistics for its civil False Claims Act (FCA) and fraud cases from the 2022 fiscal year (FY). Up front, we see the following key takeaways ...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), through Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr., announced on Jan. 17, 2023, "the first significant changes" to its Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) since 2017. The revisions...more
1/23/2023
/ Compliance ,
Cooperation ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Declination ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Sentencing Guidelines ,
Policy Updates ,
Remediation ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Voluntary Disclosure ,
White Collar Crimes
False Claims Act (FCA) cases, particularly in the government contracts space, often have several defendants; prime contractors, subcontractors, vendors and individuals are all common targets. In healthcare FCA cases, with...more
In remarks to the American Bar Association (ABA) Institute on White Collar Crime on March 3, 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland underscored the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) renewed emphasis on corporate...more
3/7/2022
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Individual Accountability ,
Merrick Garland ,
Personal Liability ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
White Collar Crimes
New Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on October 28, 2021, previewed the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) enhanced stance on corporate crime. Monaco announced the formation of a Corporate Crime Advisory Group, which will...more
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) provides for billions of dollars in relief funds to healthcare providers responding to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In April 2020, the U.S. Department...more
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued a supplemental interim final rule regarding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to buttress its supplemental guidance issued on April 23, 2020. In these, SBA warned...more
In the wake of the (coronavirus) COVID-19 pandemic, federal agencies are starting to use their delegated authority under the Defense Production Act ("DPA"), 50 U.S.C. § 4511 and the related Executive Order 12919 to place...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has a renewed focus on government contracting and, more specifically, anti-competitive behavior in federal procurement. As mentioned in a prior blog post, the DOJ's Antitrust Division...more
3/18/2020
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Bid Rigging ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Authority ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Agency Taskforce ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Procurement Systems ,
Market Allocation Scheme ,
Price-Fixing ,
RICO ,
The Clayton Act
Contractors have struggled to prevent the release of confidential information such as proposals incorporated into contracts and unit pricing requested by competitors and others under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)....more
Trade secrets can be stolen at any point, and such theft can be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. This is evident in recently unsealed charges brought against a software engineer who stole source code from his United...more
7/16/2019
/ China ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Economic Espionage Act ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Indictments ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Source Code ,
Trade Secrets
• The U.S. Supreme Court's much-anticipated decision in Cochise Consultancy, Inc. et al. v. United States ex rel. Hunt, issued on May 13, 2019, holds that whistleblowers have more time to bring their qui tam suits.
• The...more
5/14/2019
/ Appeals ,
Cochise Consultancy Inc v United States ex rel Hunt ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
First-to-File ,
Government Officials ,
Intervenors ,
Oral Argument ,
Qui Tam ,
Relators ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Statute of Limitations
DOJ Releases Guidance on Cooperation Credit in False Claims Act Cases -
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released guidelines for evaluating self-disclosures and awarding cooperation credit in False Claims Act (FCA)...more
Companies facing liability under the False Claims Act (FCA) often desire early resolution with the Department of Justice (DOJ) through settlement. Hand in hand with the decision to settle comes the decision of whether or not...more
4/26/2019
/ Cooperation ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Sentencing Guidelines ,
Fraud ,
Qui Tam ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Remedial Actions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Self-Policing ,
Self-Reporting