The Qui Tam Blog

Last month the Department of Justice announced that American Grocers, Inc., has agreed to pay $13.2 million to settle a lawsuit that charged the Houston company with changing "use-by" labels on food sold and shipped to U.S. troops in the Middle East during the Iraq war.

The case began in 2005 after Delma Pallare, despite fears of retaliation, blew the whistle on American Grocers, Inc. and its owner Samir Itani, and brought to light the illegal conduct.

Ms. Pallares, represented by the law firm of Berg & Androphy, brought her lawsuit, also known as a qui tam action, under the Civil False Claims Act in the Southern District of Texas. The Houston law firm spent 5 years relentlessly pursuing the case along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Zingaro. As a result, the government issued a search warrant for American Grocers’ warehouse, indicted Itani, and intervened in the qui tam action.

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Allergan Inc., has agreed to settle a federal investigation over how it marketed Botox, said the Associated Press (AP). Allergan Inc. allegedly promoted Botox Therapeutic for unapproved medical uses through Medicaid resulting in a combined $600 million in civil and criminal penalties. The settlement becomes official once a federal judge approves it, said the AP.

A whistleblower complaint led to the probe that lasted one year, with the Justice Department looking at Allergan’s marketing of Botox from 2001 through 2008. The five whistleblowers will split $37.8 million of the government’s settlement.

Private citizens who file lawsuits on behalf of the government alleging fraud are eligible for up to 18 percent of whatever is recovered as the result of a qui tam lawsuit. According to a press release, Allergan Inc. agreed to pay state governments and the federal government a combined $225 million civil settlement to compensate Medicaid, Medicare and other federal health programs for reimbursements wrongly paid for Botox Therapeutic. This includes $210 million to the federal government—the rest to a number of states—connected to the probe.

“Off-label marketing violates the civil and criminal laws.” says Joel Androphy, Partner at the prestigous Nationwide law firm of Berg and Androphy. “In addition to misbranding a drug, many pharmaceutical companies pay kickbacks to doctors to induce more prescriptions. As long as companies compete for patients, off-label marketing will continue.”

A lawsuit was filed Monday, July 19th by Wilfrido Willie Mata, the former IT director of the Harrison County sheriff’s office’s claiming he was illegally fired for being a whistle blower.

“You can’t say to somebody, ‘Thanks for reporting. You’re fired,’” Houston whistleblower attorney Joel Androphy said.

According to the lawsuit, instead of looking the other way while an outsider hacked into the county’s computer system, Mata went to the FBI. In October, Mata disclosed his cooperation to the sheriff’s office. In February, the suit says his performance review was rated average. In May, he was fired.

“That timing is too close to not raise a lot of suspicion that he was fired because of complaining,” Androphy said. The lawsuit alleges the sheriff’s office violated the Whistleblower Act.

Watch the complete story as reported on WKTRK Eyewitness News.