 |
| Top
False Claims Act Cases By Award Amount |
Company
|
Settlement ($) |
Date |
| 1) HCA * |
731,400,000 |
Dec-00 |
| 2) HCA * |
631,000,000 |
Jun-03 |
| 3)
Serono Group * |
567,000,000 |
Oct
- 05 |
| 4) TAP Pharmaceuticals Products
Inc. * |
559,483,560 |
Oct-01 |
| 5)
Abbott Labs * |
400,000,000 |
Jul-03 |
| 6)
Fresenius Medical Care of N. America* |
385,000,000 |
Jan-00 |
| 7)
SmithKline Beecham Clinical Labs (tie) |
325,000,000 |
Feb-97 |
| 7)
HealthSouth * (tie) |
325,000,000
|
Dec-04
|
| 8)
National Medical Enterprises * |
324,200,000 |
Jun-94 |
| 9) Gambro Healthcare |
310,000,000
|
Dec-04
|
| 10) Schering-Plough * |
292,969,482
|
Jul-04
|
(*
means criminal fines were also levied. Amounts listed are only
for Federal FCA settlements; additional state claims may also have
been paid).
Source: TAF.org |
Inside
the Serono Settlement
$700M drug settlement could spark whistleblower suits (PDF)
Robert
M. Thomas featured in Massachusetts Laywers Weekly, 11/14/2005
Serono
agrees to pay $704 million to settle fraud allegations
Robert
M. Thomas featured in The Boston Globe, 10/18/2005
Swiss drugmaker Serono SA has agreed to pay $704 million to settle criminal
and civil charges that it illegally promoted its AIDS drug, prosecutors
said yesterday, in one of the biggest sums collected in the government's
growing scrutiny of pharmaceutical firms.
In papers unsealed on October 17, 2005, the prosecutors announced that
five former employees who filed whistleblower complaints will receive
17% of the government’s civil recovery. The combined federal and state
“relators’ share” will exceed $75 million. Thomas & Associates’ client,
Frank Garcia expects to receive more than $10 million as part of the settlement.
Serono
Settlement Press Release (PDF)
(Word) | (Web)
 Boston Globe
coverage:
$704m penalty for drug maker: Improper efforts to build demand (PDF)
>>NECN Video:
 Drug
firm pays $700 million settlement
>>Related articles:
Serono agrees to pay $704 million to settle fraud allegations (PDF)
Pharmacies
that sold AIDS drug by Serono may face US inquiry (PDF)
Whistle-blowers'
spotlight falls on drug companies
US rules allowing big payouts weigh on life-sciences industry
Robert
M. Thomas and Suzanne E. Durrell featured in The Boston Globe,
04/22/2005
US rules allowing big payouts weigh on life-sciences industry.
Former federal prosecutors report a sharply rising rate of private lawsuits
filed in Boston by people urging the government to bring fraud charges
against their employers, especially drug companies. The boom in these
cases -- up as much as 30 percent since 2002 by one estimate -- comes
as law-enforcement pressure grows on the state's fast-growing life-sciences
industry....
Read
the full article | PDF
Thomas
& Associates files lawsuit under Massachusetts whistleblower protection
statute:
Suit Targets Public Safety Secretary
Featured
in The Boston Globe, 04/2004
Michael C. Mather, a former state official who led the Commonwealth's
antidrug efforts said in a lawsuit filed yesterday that state Public Safety
Secretary Edward A. Flynn fired him last year in retaliation for trying
to get Flynn to halt the spending of money intended for drug prevention
on administrative salaries. Mather told Flynn at a meeting on Jan. 21,
2003 that he needed help stopping irregularities in the administration
of grants that began under James P. Jajuga...
Related Story on BostonHerald.com
(external
site)
Handling
Whistleblower Cases
Massachusetts is Seeing a Boom in these Potentially Lucrative Matters
Mass Lawyers Weekly, 12/2003
Under the federal False Claims Act, whistleblowers can earn
between 15 and 30 percent of any settlement or judgment (which can be
in the millions). And experts say the cases are as plentiful as ever with
federal spending on things like health care and defense contracts spiking
— creating opportunities for money to be skimmed off through fraudulent
activity."Boston has become the place to file these cases,"
says Suzanne E. Durrell, the former deputy chief of the Civil Division
of the U.S. Attorney's Office, who is now in private practice as a whistleblower
attorney at Thomas & Associates in Boston...
Read
the full article (external site)
More
news stories posted soon.
Back to News
& Events main page »
| |
