The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Thomas, agreed with the Eleventh Circuit that the False Claims Act’s “government knowledge” statute of limitations applies regardless of whether the government chooses to intervene in a qui tam suit. Under the False Claims Act, a civil action must be filed by the later of 1) six years after the statutory violation, or  2) three years after the relevant facts are “known or reasonably…

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently criticized government agencies for outsourcing their investigation to the target company, Deutsche Bank, and its counsel, Paul Weiss, to such a degree that the court treated statements that an employee made to internal investigators as the product of government interrogation.  United States v. Connolly, No. 16 Cr. 0370 (CM), 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76233 (S.D.N.Y. May 2, 2019).   The investigation concerned potential manipulation…

We have been writing about white-collar enforcement trends discussed at the Boston Bar Association’s recent White Collar Crime Conference (see here and here). Today we look at one area that was the subject of much discussion at the conference: securities enforcement. Paul Levenson, Director of the Boston Regional Office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said that the SEC is looking closely at microcap fraud, in addition to its other 2019 …

John Kapoor’s fate continues to rest in the hands of jurors in the District of Massachusetts. On April 5, 2019, both the United States and defense counsel concluded their closing arguments in USA v. Babich et. al., No. 1:16-cr-10343, a case where the Government alleged that Kapoor, the founder and former Chairman of the Board of Insys Therapeutics, was instrumental in Insys’ scheme to bribe doctors to overprescribe Subsys, an under-the-tongue fentanyl-based painkiller approximately 100…

Federal and state prosecutors recently convened at the Boston Bar Association’s White Collar Crime Conference to discuss, among other topics, health care enforcement priorities. At the conference, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts (USAO) highlighted its recent focus on pharmaceutical companies that make donations to co-pay assistance foundations, an area where we have recently seen a flurry of False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement. The USAO discussed three recent settlements and noted that…

Imagine this scenario:  you’ve had a productive and mutually advantageous ongoing contractual relationship of several years with another party.  You have built up quite a bit of trust over the years, and communicate regularly over email.  Your email communications include you receiving invoices and then confirming payment; your email messages might include a note about an upcoming shipment or provision of services, or even a note wishing the family well. One day, you receive a…

Opioids, off-label marketing, and the home health industry will remain priorities for federal and state attorneys enforcing health care laws, according to comments made at the Boston Bar Association’s (BBA) White Collar Crime Conference. The conference, held in Boston on April 22, featured speakers from the civil and criminal divisions of Boston’s U.S. Attorney’s Office and from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. Civil enforcement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office continues to focus on health…