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The Defendant Sila Luis was charged with stealing over $45 million by allegedly paying kickbacks and conspiring to commit fraud, all related to health care. Luis wanted to hire her own attorney, but the government froze all of her funds, even those funds unrelated to the crimes she was accused of committing. Federal law allows…

Supreme Court of Illinois holds that use of a drug-detection dog violated Fourth Amendment in People v. Burns. On January 10, 1013 at 3:20 am, the police along with a drug-detection dog went into defendant’s apartment building. This officer and his dog got into the building when a tenant let in a fellow officer, who…

Chicago – In United States v. Pu, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 3224 (7th Circuit February 24, 2016), the court addressed the district court’s loss calculation and restitution order. Pu who worked for two companies, one of which was the Citadel in Chicago, a hedge fund, was indicted for and pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of…

A federal judge in Illinois yesterday approved a settlement agreement between Stericycle (NSDQ:SRCL) and the plaintiff in a whistleblower lawsuit accusing the medical waste disposal company of overbilling federal and state governments to the tune of some $13.6 million. Jennifer Perez, a government customer relations specialist at YY-based Stericycle from 2004 until March 2008, filed…

Chicago – Federal District Court Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr., rejected Chrysler’s attempt to get a False Claims Act, qui tam, lawsuit alleging that Chrysler defrauded the United States by wrongfully denying powertrain warranty coverage on government owned vehicles dismissed. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the United States by the relator in federal…

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving Universal Health Services who is accused of violating the False Claims Act. The Court agreed to decide whether an implied certification theory is viable cause of action under the FCA. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal, which reviews district court cases including those out of the…

The False Claims Act 31 U.S.C. 3729 imposes treble damages and civil penalties for submitting false or fraudulent claims to the government. The FCA statute states that the defendant is subject to a penalty of between $5,000 and $10,000 for each false claim submitted. This amount is, according to the FCA, adjusted pursuant to the…

According to the Wall Street Journal, once again the Department of Justice is investigation drug companies for lying about the price of their drugs to the Medicaid program, a federal and state funded health care program for the poor. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the United States Department…

The Department of Justice wasted no time in showing that its new policy of going after individuals, not just companies, engaged in fraudulent conduct was for real. Late last week, October 29, 2015, the government charged the former president of a subsidiary of Warner Chilcott PLC, a pharmaceutical division, with conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback…

DOJ to Focus on Individual Accountability for Corporate Fraud The U.S. Department of Justice announces that holding individuals accountable for corporate fraud is a top priority. In a seven-page memorandum, released September 9, 2015, Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates, announced new guidelines focusing on individual accountability for corporate misdeeds. The Memorandum states that focusing…