On March 29, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted the parties’ joint stipulation for dismissal in U.S. ex. rel. Godsholl v. Covenant Healthcare, following three settlements of the relator’s claims pursuant to the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 (“FCA”), the Michigan Medicaid False Claim Act, MCL 400.601, et seq., the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b) (“AKS”), and the Stark Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1395nn (“Stark”), alleging that a regional hospital system engaged in improper financial relationships with referring physicians. The settlement payments total more than $69 million.

In U.S. v. Genesis Global Healthcare, 2023 WL 3656925 (S.D. Ga. May 25, 2023), a Georgia district court denied three (3) Motions to Dismiss the Second Amended Complaint filed in a qui tam action brought by relators under the False Claims Act (the “FCA”) and the Georgia False Medicaid Claims Act. The court, having previously held that the relators’ First Amended Complaint amounted to an improper shotgun pleading, found that the Second Amended Complaint adequately remedied the court’s concerns. The court’s ruling reaffirms the pleading standards of claims brought under the FCA and serves as a guide for both courts and parties alike to the pleading requirements a complaint must satisfy to survive a motion to dismiss.

Notable litigation filed during June 2023 includes: (1) Bowman v. Unibank; (2) SEC v. Baston; (3) Hafen v. Guyon, et al.; (4) SEC v. Royal Bengal Logistics, et al.; (5) Decimal Capital Partners v. Benavente; and (6) Agri Capital v. Soberal, et al.

Bowman v. Unibank, No. 2:23-cv-00971-JCC (W.D.

Much has been written about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent “Policy Statement on Abusive Acts or Practices,”[1] in which the Bureau analyzed the prohibition on abusive conduct in the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA). In response to the statement’s publication in the Federal Register, comments were submitted by banks, credit unions, debt collectors, and others.[2] But the Bureau’s policy statement should be of particular interest to another class of persons: real-estate agents who participate in joint ventures with mortgage or title companies.

In the premiere episode of The Professor’s Corner, McGuireWoods partner David Pivnick shared best board practices to mitigate risk when making challenging decisions. In this follow-up episode, David joins host Geoff Cockrell to expand on a larger trend in healthcare litigation: Private equity funds are finding themselves legally responsible for the activity of the companies…

Blackford Capital has announced it has acquired PACIV.

PACIV, with its U.S. headquarters in Indianapolis, is a provider of industrial process automation and systems integration. Founded in 1997, the company primarily support manufacturers in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries.

Blackford, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., is a lower middle market private equity…

Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma granted Washington state’s motion to intervene to transfer venue to the Western District of Washington in James Siegel, M.D. v. Novo Nordisk, Inc. Relator Dr. Siegel originally filed suit in Oklahoma on February 2, 2015, alleging violations of the Federal False Claims Act (FCA), the Washington Medical Fraud False Claims Act, and the Oklahoma False Claims Act, among other state law infractions. On January 23, 2020, Washington intervened, adding additional claims under Washington’s Fraudulent Practices Act. Oklahoma and the federal government did not.  The district court dismissed Oklahoma state law claims, and Washington subsequently moved to transfer the case, limited now to FCA and Washington claims, to the federal court in their own state. The court granted their motion.