$11.8 Million Settlement Against Novartis Pharmaceuticals

CA ATTORNEY GENERAL

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced an $11.8 million settlement against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Novartis) related to allegations that the company engaged in a kickback scheme from January 2002 through November 2011 that impacted beneficiaries of Medicare and Medi-Cal. Novartis was accused of violating the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act, as well as the California False Claims Act, by offering payment in the form of cash, meals, and honoraria to healthcare practitioners to encourage them to prescribe certain Novartis drug products, including drugs such as Lotrel, Valturna, Starlix, Tekamlo, Diovan HCT, Tekturna HCT, and Exforge HCT, Diovan, and Exforge, to recipients of Medicare and Medicaid. 

The settlement is a result of a whistleblower case filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2011. As part of the agreement, Novartis is required to pay California $11.8 million, which will be split between the General Fund and Medi-Cal.  read more »

Ex-Owner in $146 Million Elder Care Default Is Charged in Ponzi Case

NEW YORK TIMES

A Chicago-area rabbi, who formerly owned a nursing home chain at the heart of the biggest default in the history of a federal mortgage-guarantee program, has been indicted by federal authorities on charges he bilked millions of dollars from investors.

The indictment against Zvi Feiner and a business partner, Erez Baver, is the latest chapter in the yearslong saga involving the Rosewood Care Centers chain of nursing homes, which are mainly in the Chicago suburbs. read more »

How White-Collar Criminals Get Away With It

NEW REPUBLIC

Over a decade since the financial crisis revealed an unimaginable level of white-collar crime by some of the highest-status people in our society, a major question remains unanswered. Why did no one go to jail in the United States? Actually, two people did go to jail. The first is a well-known story: Kareem Serageldin, the Egyptian-born banking executive who ended up being sentenced to 30 months in low-security prison. The other was a loan officer named Ken Yu at a small, family-run bank in Manhattan’s Chinatown called Abacus Federal Savings Bank, who was sentenced to six months in jail in 2015. read more »