Insights

Washington – June 6, 2024: Crowell & Moring earned 78 rankings for 67 lawyers, as well as 41 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2024 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and lawyers at peer firms.

The facts before the Third Circuit in the recently decided case of Patel v. United States illustrate how parties can put themselves in a bind if they make factual admissions when resolving a criminal case involving fraud on the government while not simultaneously resolving the government’s civil claims under the False Claims Act (FCA) for the same underlying conduct.

In a prime example of the significant interplay between the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) and the False Claims Act (“FCA”), a federal jury has returned a verdict of more than $43 million in damages against Cameron-Ehlen Group, Inc., which does business as “Precision Lens,” and its owner.  The verdict in this long-running and closely watched fraud case out of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota comes after a six-week trial, with the jury ultimately finding that the defendants paid kickbacks to ophthalmic surgeons to induce their use of defendants’ products in cataract surgeries reimbursed by Medicare, resulting in the submission of 64,575 false claims between 2006 and 2015.  While the jury calculated damages at the massive sum of $43 million, that number may grow exponentially after the court applies the FCA’s treble-damages calculation (increasing the liability to $129 million) and statutory penalties of between $5,500 and $11,000 for each of the 64,575 claims (resulting in additional penalties of $355 million to $710 million).  All told, the total FCA liability is expected to range between $485 million and $839 million.

Pressure. It’s the one constant for all legal departments, and general counsel rarely face more of it than when they’re leading an investigation that has made headlines and captured the public’s attention. In the digital age, the appetite for instant answers combined with intense public scrutiny has put tremendous pressure on every aspect of investigations—from the way facts are gathered to executive accountability, government relations, and managing the impact of the crisis on the brand and the stock price.

Whether the result of an employee complaint or a government inquiry, internal investigations are a fact of life for government contractors. However, the challenges of dealing with competing priorities are myriad and the potential pitfalls are many.

Crowell & Moring attorneys Jason Murray, Jim Flood, Juan Arteaga, and Olivier Antoine will be speaking on the panel "From Congress to the Courtroom: Congressional Investigations and Their Impact on Parallel Proceedings."

This hour-long webinar will cover up to the minute updates about the evolving areas of government contracts compliance, transactions trends and tripwires, False Claims Act developments, and current trends in small business investigation and enforcement. This update is designed to help government contracts professionals comply, and thrive in 2018 and beyond. 

This week’s episode features a deep dive on the President’s Executive Order, Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement, which directs the consolidation of certain types of “domestic federal procurement” under the General Services Administration in an effort to “eliminate waste and duplication.”  This episode is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

"Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring’s podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.

In this episode, hosts Michael Shaheen and Jason Crawford discuss the Department of Justice’s recently announced False Claims Act (FCA) recovery statistics for fiscal year 2022. The podcast breaks down last year’s FCA activity—which included a record number of new matters—and considers what the trends could portend for fraud enforcement in the year to come. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring’s podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.