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DOJ Begins Targeting COVID-19 Fraud Schemes

Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.20.20

In response to increased reporting of COVID-19-related fraud and misconduct, on March 16, 2020 Attorney General Barr directed all U.S. Attorneys to prioritize the prosecution of wrongdoers seeking to profit from this national crisis. Barr stated in his directive that "[t]he pandemic is dangerous enough without wrongdoers seeking to profit from public panic and this sort of conduct cannot be tolerated." Examples of such conduct include the sale of fake cures for COVID-19, phishing emails posing as the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and malware being inserted into mobile apps designed to track the spread of the virus.

U.S. Attorneys have already started responding to the directive. The U.S. Attorneys in the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Southern District of Mississippi have each appointed a dedicated COVID-19 fraud coordinator, while other U.S. Attorneys have launched hotlines and educational campaigns to combat COVID-19-related fraud. They are joined by other U.S. agencies that are starting to ring similar alarm bells, like the GSA which put out a notice this week that it has received reports of companies fraudulently claiming to be GSA vendors to mislead consumers into paying exorbitant prices for products associated with COVID-19. Over the coming days and weeks, we expect that U.S. Attorneys and agencies across the country will further shift their criminal and civil enforcement priorities to cases stemming from the COVID-19 crisis.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 08.07.25

File First, Facts Later? Eleventh Circuit Says That Discovery Can Inform False Claims Act Allegations in Amended Complaints

On July 25, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in United States ex. rel. Sedona Partners LLC v. Able Moving & Storage Inc. et al., holding that a district court cannot ignore new factual allegations included in an amended complaint filed by a False Claims Act qui tam relator based on the fact that those additional facts were learned in discovery, even while a motion to dismiss for failure to comply with the heightened pleading standard under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) is pending.  Under Rule 9(b), allegations of fraud typically must include factual support showing the who, what, where, why, and how of the fraud to survive a defendant’s motion to dismiss.  And while that standard has not changed, Sedona gives room for a relator to file first and seek out discovery in order to amend an otherwise deficient complaint and survive a motion to dismiss, at least in the Eleventh Circuit.  Importantly, however, the Eleventh Circuit clarified that a district court retains the discretion to dismiss a relator’s complaint before or after discovery has begun, meaning that district courts are not required to permit discovery at the pleading stage.  Nevertheless, the Sedona decision is an about-face from precedent in the Eleventh Circuit, and many other circuits, where, historically, facts learned during discovery could not be used to circumvent Rule 9(b) by bolstering a relator’s factual allegations while a motion to dismiss was pending.  While the long-term effects of the decision remain to be seen, in the short term the decision may encourage relators to engage in early discovery in hopes of learning facts that they can use to survive otherwise meritorious motions to dismiss....

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