False Claims Act

More than 30 attorneys, including attorneys who formerly served as:

• Assistant U.S. attorneys and Justice Department trial attorneys
• Officials of the SEC's Division of Enforcement
• Officials of the FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

• Assistant United States Attorney, United States Department of Justice, District of Maryland

• Settled a False Claims Act investigation into a Defense Department contract on favorable terms on behalf of a logistics company. The original demand by the government and the qui tam relators was in excess of $1 billion. Under terms of the settlement, the False Claims Act allegations against the companies have been dismissed with prejudice, waived, and released, and the negotiated final settlement was $13 million, of which client paid $10 million and a co-defendant paid $3 million
• Represented a large generic drug manufacturer based overseas, with a U.S. manufacturing and market presence, in wide-ranging criminal and civil investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, coupled with administrative enforcement actions by the Food and Drug Administration. Among the issues involved in the case, the FDA issued warning letters and an Import Alert for the company's foreign facilities, and invoked the Application Integrity Policy as to one of the foreign facilities, based on cGMP and data integrity concerns. The company resolved this highly complex and multifaceted investigation by pleading guilty to a criminal information, entering a companion civil False Claims Act settlement, and paying a total of $500 million to settle the matter. The company also entered a separate consent decree with FDA, negotiated by regulatory counsel from another firm with Venable participation
• Represented an individual pharmaceutical company executive in an investigation of off-label marketing and anti-kickback violations by FDA and USDOJ pursuant to a qui tam False Claims Act whistleblower action. Client was ultimately deemed to be a witness in the matter
• Represented a nonprofit organization in a False Claims Act investigation by USDOJ, sparked by a whistleblower complaint of misuse of government grant funds. USDOJ ultimately declined to enter the FCA case, and the complaint was dismissed as part of a broader settlement with whistleblower
• Represented a security services contractor in a coordinated, multijurisdictional civil False Claims Act matter. The case settled for less than 25 cents on the dollar. As part of the agreement, DOJ agreed to accept less than double the damages. Venable avoided filing any responsive pleadings or participating in discovery, which saved the client substantial sums of money
• Represented a government contractor in several sensitive internal investigations of potential contract noncompliance to help ascertain whether any False Claims Act or other violations were implicated
• Represented a services contractor alleged to have utilized employees who did not satisfy labor qualifications required by contract
• Persuaded the Justice Department not to intervene in a qui tam FCA suit accusing a nonprofit organization of falsely certifying contractor's eligibility to secure awards under a set-aside program and subsequently prevailed on motion to dismiss relator's claims
• Persuaded the Justice Department not to intervene in a qui tam FCA suit alleging that a construction contractor submitted inflated invoices to the air force, prompting relator to dismiss the case
• Represented a company under parallel criminal and civil investigations for purportedly violating the False Claims Act by submitting inflated invoices to the government
• Conducted multiple internal investigations on behalf of contractors involving false claims, theft, data misappropriation, and misuse of source selection information
• Obtained dismissal on behalf of a leading insurer of False Claims Act claims arising out of Hurricane Katrina

• U.S. News – Best Lawyers
  • Law Firm of the Year, Criminal Law: White-Collar Litigation, 2013
  • Best Law Firms, Criminal Defense: White-Collar (Tier 1), Washington, DC, 2012 – 2018
  • Best Law Firms, Criminal Defense: White-Collar (Tier 1), Baltimore, 2012 – 2017, 2022
  • Best Law Firms, Criminal Defense: White-Collar (Tier 1), National, 2022
• The Best Lawyers in America, 2018 – 2022 (Venable attorneys selected for inclusion)