Friday, January 19, 2007

Lawsuit claims Kerr-McGee cheated U.S. on Royalties

Kerr-McGee Corp. cheated the U.S. out of royalties by selling oil at below-market prices, a lawyer for a former Interior Department auditor said at the start of a federal trial this week.

The former auditor, Bobby Maxwell, claims in a lawsuit that Kerr-McGee knowingly sold oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico between 1999 and 2002 at reduced rates to a company called Texon, which then absorbed many of Kerr-McGee’s marketing costs. Auditors for Interior’s Minerals Management Service, the agency that collects royalties on oil and natural gas leases on federal lands, have filed at least three similar lawsuits over companies’ payments to the U.S. The Kerr-McGee case is the first to go to trial. If successful, the suit may bring in as much as $7.5 million in unpaid royalties, with a third going to Maxwell and his lawyers.

Click the following link to read the full account of the case against Kerr-McGee.

Whistleblower accuses ITT of 'Ghost-Posting' in Bosnia

A former employee of ITT Corp., the world’s largest maker of night-vision goggles, claims the company failed to supply half of the 66 armed guards it promised a military outpost in Bosnia as part of a $200 million contract with the U.S. Army. The practice of charging the Army for guards not supplied is called “ghost-posting.”

The former employee, Leonard Le Blanc, claims that ITT provided as few as 33 guards at the Brcko base in Bosnia, leaving the armory, the base defense operations center and at least three of five guard towers unmanned. The suit was filed in Manhattan federal court yesterday.

Click the following link to read the full account of the “ghost-posting" charges.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Arkansas Doctor faces Additional Charges of Fraud

An Arkansas physician awaiting federal trial on charges of receiving illegal kickbacks for medical equipment paid for by Medicare and Medicaid now faces civil court charges as well.  The civil suit was filed against Dr. Patrick Chan in Little Rock by medical supply salesman John Thomas in April 2006 and was finally unsealed by a federal judge this week.

The suit claims that Chan violated the federal False Claims Act by performing unnecessary surgeries on Medicare and Medicaid patients, and for entering into improper consulting agreements with two companies that resulted in kickbacks.

Click the following link to read the full account of the False Claims Act suit.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Federal Deficit Reduction Act requires False Claims Act Training

The federal Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) contains a provision that became effective January 1, 2007 that requires any entity that receives more than $5 million in Medicaid funds during a calendar year to provide False Claims Act training for all of its employees. The provision’s purpose is to reduce Medicaid fraud by educating employees on what is considered a violation of the Act, and to advise them of the protections and monetary awards associated with becoming a whilstleblower.

Click the following link to read the story subtitled “Snitching for Dollars" in EMSResponder.com.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Cuomo Op-Ed asserts that New York needs a False Claims Act

Newly installed Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York wrote an op-ed piece published in the Albany Times-Union on Sunday that called for the state legislature to pass a False Claims Act, which would encourage whistleblowers to turn in companies who are defrauding the state. Cuomo cited a little-known provision of the federal False Claims Act that penalizes states such as New York that have neglected passing False Claims Acts.

Click the following link to read the complete Cuomo op-ed piece calling for a New York False Claims Act.

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