Cert Denied in Closely Watched FCA Penalties Case

On Monday, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Gosselin World Wide Moving v. U.S. ex rel. Bunk, in which the petitioners questioned to what extent the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause serves as a check on per-invoice penalties under the False Claims Act. That denial will preserve the Fourth Circuit's holding that a $24 million fine was sufficiently proportional to the gravity of the offense, despite the relator's failure at trial to seek—let alone prove—any economic harm to the government.