Health Law Advisor

In August, the United States filed a Complaint-in-Intervention in a False Claims Act (FCA) whistleblower suit alleging that the Georgia Institute of Technology (“Georgia Tech”) and an affiliate, Georgia Tech Research Corp. (GTRC), violated cybersecurity requirements in connection with Department of Defense (DOD) contracts.

The complaint and accompanying press release reflect the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) heightened focus on using the FCA to address cybersecurity issues. The DOJ’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, designed to combat new and emerging cyber threats to sensitive information and critical systems, uses the federal FCA to pursue cyber-related fraud by government contractors and grant recipients.

The U.S. government joins a case originally filed in 2022 by two qui tam whistleblowers, both senior members of Georgia Tech’s cybersecurity compliance team. Both complaints allege that the defendants failed to comply with federal cybersecurity requirements and attempted to obscure this failure by submitting false claims to the government.

Six months from the date of closing. That’s how long acquiring companies have under the newly announced Department of Justice (DOJ) Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Safe Harbor Policy to disclose misconduct discovered in the context of a merger or acquisition – whether discovered pre or post-acquisition.  And the acquiring company has one year from the date of closing to remediate, as well as provide restitution to any victims and disgorge  any profits.

Over the last two years, the DOJ has made clear its priority to encourage companies to self-disclose misconduct aiming to ...

On August 30, 2021, the DOJ announced a $90 million dollar settlement with Sutter Health and affiliates[1] (“Sutter Health”) to settle False Claims Act (“FCA”) allegations brought by qui tam relator, Kathy Ormsby, related to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (“CMS”) MA Program.[2] Sutter Health elected to settle with DOJ and the relator without an admission of liability. As part of the Settlement Agreement, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) required Sutter Health to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement.