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White Collar + Fraud + Investigations + Compliance

On Saturday, the DOJ announced a settlement with Cigna Group (“Cigna”), where Cigna agreed to pay $172 Million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by submitting and failing to withdraw inaccurate diagnosis codes for its Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees in order to increase reimbursements from Medicare.

On Monday, the DOJ announced a settlement with Verizon Business Network Services LLC (“Verizon”), where Verizon agreed to pay $4.1 M to settle allegations that it failed to completely satisfy certain cybersecurity controls in connection with an information technology service provided to federal agencies. The settlement resolves allegations that Verizon’s Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Service (“MTIPS”), which was designed to provide federal agencies with secure connections to the public internet and other networks, did not completely satisfy three required cybersecurity controls related to its General Services Administration (“GSA”) contracts from 2017 through 2021.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Martin’s Point Health Care Inc. (“Martin’s Point”) where Martin’s Point agreed to pay $22,485,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting inaccurate diagnosis codes for its Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees in order to increase reimbursements from Medicare.

On July 26, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice, National Security Division (“DOJ NSD”), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”), and the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued the second-ever Tri-Seal Compliance Note (the “Note”). This Note discusses Voluntary Self-Disclosure of Potential Violations and discusses each agency’s aligned expectations for companies that discover potential violations of any administrative or criminal violations of sanctions and export controls, including expectations for prompt disclosure and remediation of such violations. The agencies collectively stress the important role that private sector businesses play in identifying threats from malicious actors and foreign adversaries seeking to subvert the U.S. financial system or access sensitive U.S. technologies or goods.

On Friday, the DOJ announced that Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (“Booz Allen”) agreed to pay the United States $377,453,150 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by improperly billing commercial and international costs to its government contracts. Notably, the settlement resolves allegations that for ten years, from 2011 to 2021, Booz Allen improperly charged indirect costs to its government contracts and subcontracts that should have been billed to commercial and international contracts under cost accounting standards. 

On Friday, July 14th, the DOJ announced its settlement with NextGen Healthcare (“NextGen”), an electronic health record technology vendor. NextGen agreed to pay $31 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by misrepresenting the capabilities of certain versions of its software and, separately, providing unlawful remuneration to its users to induce them to recommend NextGen’s software.

On Monday, the DOJ announced its settlement with L3 Technologies, Inc., Communication Systems West (“L3 Tech”), a manufacturer of communications for military systems.  L3 Tech paid $21.8 Million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by knowingly submitting false claims to the Department of Defense by double counting materials.  DOJ alleged that from 2008 through 2011, L3 Tech submitted dozens of contract proposals that double-charged the Government for low-cost common stock items like nuts and bolts.  Notably, this resolution includes a few interesting points.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced a settlement between Genotox Laboratories (“Genotox”) and the Department of Justice involving allegations that Genotox paid volume based commissions to third party marketers in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) and submitted claims to the federal health care programs for unnecessary drug tests.

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced the implementation of a Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (the “VSD Policy”).  The DOJ declared that U.S. Attorney’s Offices throughout the nation will offer benefits to companies that voluntarily and timely disclose misconduct.  Effective immediately, the VSD Policy details the parameters and criteria for voluntary self-disclosure of misconduct.  Under the VSD Policy, a company is considered to have made a voluntary self-disclosure if it is aware of misconduct prior to being publicly reported and timely discloses all relevant facts to a U.S. Attorney’s Office.  A company that meets this criteria and remediates the criminal conduct will experience significant benefits including the U.S. Attorney’s Office not seeking a guilty plea or imposing a criminal penalty. 

On February 17, 2023, the FTC brought its first civil enforcement action under the Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 C.F.R. Part 310 (“TSR”), in nearly one year.  In U.S. v. Stratics Networks Inc., et al., which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, the FTC seeks to stop a group of companies and individuals that it claims are “responsible for delivering tens of millions of unwanted Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and ringless voicemail (RVM) phony debt service robocalls to consumers nationwide.”  Because the FTC is seeking civil penalties, the Complaint was filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC.

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