- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Adrianne Appel2022-10-11T15:45:00
The high price on Biogen’s $900 million settlement for False Claims Act (FCA) violations shows the government is still keenly interested in cases of illegal kickbacks in physician referrals, experts and attorneys said.
“It’s a wake-up call to companies that they need to remain diligent in their compliance in this area,” said David Colapinto, partner at whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto.
Last month, Biogen finalized settlement of the lawsuit, after years of litigation by former employee Michael Bawduniak. Bawduniak, represented by boutique law firm Greene, alleged the company paid illegal kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe Biogen’s multiple sclerosis drugs.
THIS IS MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. To continue reading, choose one of the options below.
News and analysis for the well-informed compliance or audit exec. Select an option and click continue.
Annual Membership $499 Value offer
Full price one year membership with auto-renewal.
Membership $599
One-year only, no auto-renewal.
Biogen finalized a $900 million settlement concerning alleged kickbacks it paid to doctors to induce them to prescribe the company’s drugs and not those of its competitors.
Essilor, a manufacturer and distributor of optical lenses and equipment, will pay $22 million to settle allegations it paid kickbacks to spur sales in violation of the False Claims Act.
False Claims Act settlements totaled more than $5.6 billion in the past federal fiscal year, the second-largest amount ever collected by the government in FCA actions in one year, according to the Department of Justice.
A bank examiner and senior manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond pled guilty to insider trading after allegedly misappropriating confidential information on seven banks to make profitable trades.
New York-based investment firm Drexel Hamilton will pay more than $1.1 million in penalties, with four current and former employees paying fines as well over committing hundreds of violations of rules regarding the sale of municipal bonds.
A publicly traded cryptocurrency mining company will pay $10 million and completely change its business model to one with “lower corruption risk” as part of a settlement over violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), two regulators announced.
