Article Summary

How to bring a successful false claims act against state-funded research entities with a focus on the Virginia Fraud against Taxpayers Act and the issue of sovereign immunity.

This article by TELG managing principal R. Scott Oswald and TELG principal & general counsel Nicholas Woodfield was published by Bloomberg BNA Pharmaceutical Law & Industry Report on October 1, 2014. The full article is .

Excerpted from:

The Road to Recovery: State False Claims Acts and Fraud in State-Funded Research

The federal False Claims Act has been quite successful in allowing the federal government to recover funds, almost $5 billion in fiscal year 2014 alone, that otherwise might have been lost to fraud. Indeed, the success of the federal FCA has led a large number of states to adopt their own versions of the law, most of which are modeled on the federal law. While these state FCAs also have proven effective in recouping funds lost to fraud, there are still classes of organizations that escape liability for waste of taxpayer dollars: those organizations that are actually arms of the state itself.