It is difficult to imagine looking for a woman’s dress and NOT shopping at JC Penney’s, Belk’s, Sears, Nordstrom’s, Lord and Taylor or online at “overstock.com”. Yet, to avoid purchasing clothes that were manufactured overseas, and imported to the United States under false pretenses, one would have to find somewhere…
You may have heard of an event called a “Botox party”. The basic concept is that a group of people get together and “share” a vial of Botox to address signs of age which may appear on a person’s face. These “events” are paid for individually and do not in…
“HOW LOW CAN YOU GO” Just when you think fraudsters can’t reach a new low, you read about Michael Mann, the owner of Seattle-based Wheelchairs Plus. Mr. Mann has been ordered to pay $2.7 million for fraudulently billing the Medicaid program for 119 new wheelchairs. Unfortunately, what Mann delivered were…
A couple of months ago, the Department of Justice announced a settlement with VMware, Inc. and Carahsoft Technology. The two companies specialize in providing virtualization software and information technology products to federal, state and local governments. The allegation against these two entities was that they did not provide their “best…
The federal government provides many programs to aid socially or economically disadvantaged individuals or groups in obtaining business opportunities or projects. Some of those are well known and others are somewhat more obscure. The Department of Justice recently announced a settlement with HD Supply Waterworks (Waterworks), the nation’s largest supplier…
The Department of Justice announced a settlement with nearly 500 hospitals related to the implantation of cardioverter defibrillators (ICD’s). The surgeries did not meet the appropriate medical conditions for Medicare coverage established in the National Coverage Determination (NCD). Medicare will generally exclude coverage for ICD procedures when a bypass or…
In what has to be one of the more bizarre cases of alleged Medicaid fraud, a Florida dentist has been accused of needlessly pulling children’s teeth as part of a Medicaid fraud scheme. The case has not yet been litigated; however, 58 notices of intent to sue by angry patients…
Historically, IRS tax whistleblower cases have been both frustrating and unproductive. In a Bloomberg article in 2012, Michael Fitzgerald was quoted as saying a referral to the IRS of a whistleblower case is akin to being in “purgatory” since there had historically been little to no communication from the service.…
A False Claims Act, pending in The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against Allied Dental Practices of New Jersey and a number of individual dentists, has been settled. The complaint alleges that local Dentists Edward Poller, Glenn Prager, Christopher Emma, Todd Prager, and Daniel DiCesare…
The Law Office of Michael D. Fitzgerald is a proud member of the TAF Education Fund.