New York Paralegal Blog

Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Ronald J. Verrochio, Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service, announced today the filing of a civil complaint in federal court in Brooklyn against Yall Inc., a Brooklyn-based Internet vendor of consumer electronics, and its principal, Hang Feng (“Nick”) Wu, for knowingly underpaying postage on massive amounts of mail, causing millions of dollars in losses to the United States Postal Service.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., and New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin M. Lawsky announced the arrests of three individuals for defrauding insurance companies and employment health plans of more than $485,000. The defendants are accused of submitting hundreds of false claims for mental health care treatments that they never received. SUDHA KAILAS, 33, HERLINA LUIS, 37, and JANICE SICH, 52, have been charged with Grand Larceny and Insurance Fraud, among other charges.[1]

(CN) - Michael Jackson's former manager claims he is entitled to commissions on business deals that have taken place in the years since the King of Pop's death. Frederick DeMann, owner and president of the company DeMann Entertainment, then Weisner-DeMann Entertainment Inc., was Michael Jackson's manager during the lucrative years between 1978 and 1983 - when Jackson released the albums "Thriller" and "Off the Wall."

Novo Nordisk, Inc. has entered into a civil settlement agreement with the United States in which it has agreed to pay the United States and several states $1.725 million to resolve allegations that the company caused false or fraudulent claims to be submitted to the Medicaid program in connection with its marketing of the diabetes drugs Novolin, Novolin 70/30, Novolog, and Novolog 70/30. The settlement was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. As alleged in the civil settlement agreement, Novo Nordisk sales representatives in four states and the District of Columbia made payments to Rite Aid pharmacists in exchange for those pharmacists recommending the Novolin and Novolog products. The pharmacists, together with Novo Nordisk sales representatives in those states, identified patients who were candidates to use Novolin or Novolog and communicated with physicians, patients, or other pharmacists to encourage them to use or recommen...

NEW YORK – The United States has filed a civil mortgage fraud lawsuit against Deutsche Bank AG and its wholly owned subsidiary, MortgageIT Inc.  The government’s complaint seeks damages and civil penalties under the False Claims Act for repeated false certifications made to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in connection with the residential mortgage origination and sponsorship practices of MortgageIT.  To date, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has paid insurance claims on more than 3,100 mortgages, totaling $386 million, for mortgages endorsed by MortgageIT.   Today’s announcement was made by Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division; Helen Kanovsky, General Counsel of HUD; and Michael P. Stephens, Acting Inspector General of HUD.   According to the government’s complaint filed today in Manhattan federal cour...

Daniel McMullen, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Jackson Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Scott Dennis, U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Inspector General - Southern Region (SBA-OIG), joined in announcing the following arrests: VICTOR PLANETTA, age 57, and EILEEN PLANETTA, age 53, residents of Slidell, Louisiana, were arrested by Special Agents of the FBI, with assistance from officers of the Slidell, LA Police Department, at approximately 6:00 p.m., on April 26, 2011, pursuant to arrest warrants issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Following their arrests, the PLANETTAs were transported to Mississippi and held in the Stone County, MS Jail, pending their initial court appearance. The PLANETTAs were indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District of Mississippi on charges that they conspired to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) by making ...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued four warning letters to companies that manufacture and market over-the-counter (OTC) drug products, including hand sanitizers, that claim to prevent infection from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA). Labeling and marketing materials for the affected products also claim that they can prevent infection from other disease-causing agents. In addition, the labeling of some of the firms’ hand sanitizing drug products make claims related to preventing infection from E.coli and/or H1N1 flu virus. The FDA does not have sufficient evidence demonstrating that these products are safe and effective for these purposes. The FDA warning letters were sent to the following firms: Tec Laboratories for Staphaseptic First Aid Antiseptic/Pain Relieving Gel; JD Nelson and Associates for Safe4Hours Hand Sanitizing Lotion and Safe4Hours First Aid Antiseptic Skin Protectant; Dr. G.H. Tichenor Antiseptic Co. for Dr. Tichenor’s An...

WASHINGTON – CVS Pharmacy Inc., the retail pharmacy division of CVS Caremark Corporation that operates more than 7,000 retail pharmacies in 41 states and the District of Columbia, has agreed to pay the United States and 10 states $17.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations, the Justice Department announced on 4/15/2011. The settlement resolves allegations that CVS submitted inflated prescription claims to the government by billing the Medicaid programs in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada and Rhode Island for more than what CVS was owed for prescription drugs dispensed to Medicaid beneficiaries who were also eligible for benefits under a primary third party insurance plan (excluding Medicare as the primary payor). The United States alleged that rather than billing the government for what the insured would have been obligated to pay had the claims been submitted solely to the third party insurer (typically the...

As part of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers from bogus health claims, the Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement requiring Oreck Corporation to stop making allegedly false and unproven claims that two of its appliances can reduce the risk of flu and other illnesses, and eliminate virtually all common germs and allergens. The company also has agreed to pay $750,000 to the FTC. The FTC’s allegations involve the Oreck Halo vacuum and the Oreck ProShield Plus air cleaner. The Halo is an upright vacuum cleaner with a light chamber that generates ultraviolet light onto the floor while vacuuming. The ProShield Plus is a portable air cleaner that filters air particles using an electrostatic charge. The Halo retailed for $599.95, while the ProSheiled Plus cost as much as $399.95.

WASHINGTON – The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, two of its member hospitals (The Fort Hamilton Hospital and The University Hospital), and University Internal Medicine Associates Inc. have agreed to pay the United States $2.6 million to settle claims that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by engaging in a kickback-for-referral scheme, the Justice Department announced today. The Fort Hamilton Hospital is a 310-bed hospital located in Hamilton, Ohio. The alleged scheme involved the hospital’s desire to expand the scope of its cardiology services to include certain interventional cardiology procedures. Under state law, The Fort Hamilton Hospital could only perform the interventional cardiology procedures if it participated in a particular clinical trial involving those procedures.

WASHINGTON – Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics Inc. and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation have agreed to pay $72.5 million to resolve civil False Claims Act allegations arising from the marketing of the cystic fibrosis drug TOBI, the Justice Department announced today. The settlement resolves allegations that, between Jan. 1, 2001 and July 31, 2006, Novartis and its predecessor, Chiron Corporation, caused false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs for certain off-label uses of the drug. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved TOBI, an inhaled antibiotic, for the treatment of certain cystic fibrosis patients. The United States alleges that Chiron, and then Novartis, marketed TOBI for unapproved uses, such as diseases other than cystic fibrosis, and for cystic fibrosis patients who did not meet the parameters of the FDA-approved indication and for which TOBI was not a medically accepted use. The government alleges that this conduct caused the submission o...

AstraZeneca LP and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP will pay $520 million to resolve allegations that AstraZeneca illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services’ Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) announced today. Such unapproved uses are also known as "off-label" uses because they are not included in the drug’s FDA approved product label. The Wilmington, Del.-based company signed a civil settlement to resolve allegations that by marketing Seroquel for unapproved uses, the company caused false claims for payment to be submitted to federal insurance programs including Medicaid, Medicare and TRICARE programs, and to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program and the Bureau of Prisons.

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department announced today that the University of Phoenix has agreed to pay the United States $67.5 million to resolve allegations that its student recruitment policies violated the False Claims Act. This case began as a whistleblower action filed in the Eastern District of California under the False Claims Act, which permits private citizens to bring lawsuits for fraud on behalf of the United States and to share in any recovery. Whistleblowers Mary Hendow and Julie Behn, two former University of Phoenix employees, alleged that the university accepted federal student financial aid while in violation of statutory and regulatory provisions prohibiting post-secondary schools from paying admissions counselors certain forms of incentive-based compensation tied to the number of students recruited. Though the United States did not intervene in this action, the Government provided support and assistance to the whistleblowers at many stages of the case, including filin...

WASHINGTON - The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) has agreed to pay the government $8.3 million to settle allegations that it illegally paid kickbacks to cardiologists and caused the submission of false claims to Medicare, the Justice Department announced today. UMDNJ’s University Hospital, which is located in Newark, N.J., is a state-licensed Level 1 Trauma Center. To maintain funding and accreditation from the state, University Hospital was dependent on the annual performance of a certain number of cardiac procedures, including cardiac catheterizations and cardiothoracic surgery.

The state of New York and New York City have agreed to pay $540 million to settle allegations that they knowingly submitted, or caused to be submitted, false claims for reimbursement for school-based health care services, primarily speech therapy and transportation, provided to Medicaid eligible children from 1990 to 2001, the Justice Department announced today. The settlement is a record federal recovery by the Justice Department for the Medicaid Program. Medicaid, which is administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inside the Department of Health and Human Services, is a matching program in which the United States shares the cost of medical services for the poor and disabled with the states. Since the early 1990's, the United States has paid New York State billions of dollars as the federal government’s share of health care costs for services provided to Medicaid-eligible school children under New York’s School Supportive Health Services Program and Pr...

WASHINGTON -- Medical transcription service provider MedQuist Inc. has paid the United States $6.6 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it overbilled federal government clients, the Justice Department announced today. From 1998 onward, MedQuist provided medical transcription services to several federal government clients, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Public Health Service (PHS), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The government alleged that, from approximately 1998 through 2004, the Mount Laurel, N.J., company knowingly overbilled VA, DOD and PHS for medical transcription services. Certain federal contracts called for MedQuist to bill according to a transcription industry billing standard called the "AAMT line." Other contracts at issue imposed slightly different billing standards. More...

WASHINGTON & NEWARK, N.J. – BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBS-T) has agreed to pay the United States $2.1 million to settle allegations of violating the False Claims Act, the Justice Department announced today. BCBS-T, which is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn., operates as Riverbend Government Benefit Administrators. The settlement resolves allegations that BCBS-T, while the primary Medicare Part A Fiscal Intermediary for the state of New Jersey, failed to adjust the cost-to-charge ratios for many New Jersey hospitals in a timely manner between 2000 and 2002 that resulted in the payment of excessive "outlier payments" by Medicare program to those medical facilities. A Part A Fiscal Intermediary is a private insurance company that processes and pays Medicare claims. In addition to its standard payment system, Medicare provides supplemental reimbursement, called outlier payments, to hospitals in cases where the cost of care is unusually high. Congress enacted the s...