My Pillow Inc. settlement
Aug. 15, 2016 Following the recent unsealing of their lawsuit, whistleblower attorneys Stephen B. Diamond of Chicago’s Stephen B. Diamond, P.C. and Timothy J. McInnis of NYC’s McInnis Law announce a $1.109 million settlement of a qui tam lawsuit against My Pillow, Inc. in State of New York ex rel. Stephen B. Diamond, P.C. v. My Pillow, Inc., 100337/14 (Sup Ct, NY County). The settlement resolves allegations that My Pillow, a Minnesota company, knowingly failed to collect and remit New York use taxes on Internet and telephone sales to New York customers, thereby violating the New York False Claims Act, N.Y. Fin. Law § 187. This is the first New York False Claims Act settlement for unpaid taxes on Internet and telephone sales since the Act was amended in 2010 to explicitly include tax claims.
This action followed on the heels of Relator Stephen B. Diamond, P.C.’s 2012 investigation of My Pillow in Illinois, which revealed My Pillow sold merchandise at craft shows and through the Internet and telephone to New York customers. My Pillow also broadcast infomercials to New York residents. In July, 2016, the New York State Attorney General and Relator, Stephen B. Diamond, P.C. entered into a settlement agreement with My Pillow requiring My Pillow to pay $1.109 million in lost taxes and penalties for 2011-2015 and also collect and remit use taxes on all future Internet and telephone sales to New York customers.
In bringing this case as the whistleblower, Stephen B. Diamond, P.C. pointed out “Actions for unpaid taxes pursuant to the False Claims Act give the State a means to recover substantial amounts of lost revenue, including treble damages and penalties.” Attorney McInnis noted that, “New York is one of only a few states that have false claims acts ‘with qui tam provisions’ permitting private individuals to sue state sales and income tax fraud evaders on behalf of the government. Illinois is another such state. Typically a whistleblower can receive between 15% and 30% of recovered funds if the suit is successful.” In this case, under the settlement agreement Stephen Diamond, P.C. received $221,000 (20%), plus the right to seek reasonable statutory fees, which have not yet been determined.
SOURCE McInnis Law
Husband sentenced to 100 months and wife to 78 months for forging doctor signatures on radiology reports prepared in their NJ mobile diagnostic businesses
“Manhattan U.S. Attorney announces $9.5 million settlement with Columbia University for improperly seeking excessive cost recoveries in connection with federal research grants”
Government Complaint Settlement Agreement
US Attorney in Manhattan Joins Customs Duties Case Against Chinese Apparel Importer and others—Falsified Invoices Used
Case details in PDF format
PDF A PDF B PDF C
“Manhattan U.S. Attorney announces $9.5 million settlement with Columbia University for improperly seeking excessive cost recoveries in connection with federal research grants”
Government Complaint Settlement Agreement
$25 Million-Plus Total Recoveries for U.S. and NY State Taxpayers As Fourth Defendant Settles Home Health Agency Fraud Case
Manhattan based Qui Tam Whistleblower Attorney Timothy J. McInnis announces an $850,000 Medicaid/Medicare False Claims settlement among three plaintiffs: The State of New York; the United States, acting through the U.S. Department of Justice and on behalf of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services; and Deborah Yannicelli; and one defendant: Friendly Home Care, Inc. (“Friendly”).
Friendly, a New York corporation, is a Licensed Home Care Services Agency (“LHCSA”) with its principal place of business at 1811 Kings Highway, Brooklyn. Friendly contracted to provide home health aides to Certified Home Health Agencies (“CHHAs”). The settlement resolves allegations that Friendly knowingly caused various CHHAs to submit claims to New York Medicaid, for which the CHHAs received payment. In turn the CHHAs paid Friendly, for home health aide services provided by individuals who had not received the required training or valid certification.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, in a news release issued when he was New York State’s attorney general, said the cases, part of a larger investigation into Medicaid home health fraud known as “Operation Home Alone,” represented the Empire State’s largest settlement won by its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Home health aide agencies used hundreds of unqualified workers to provide home care primarily to elderly, frail patients and then unlawfully billed the New York Medicaid Program millions of dollars, Cuomo had said.
As a result of Yannicelli’ s assistance, more than $25 million has now been recovered for U.S. and New York State taxpayers since late 2009.
“Medicaid and Medicare have clearly defined regulations governing training requirements and reimbursement for home health care,” Co-counsel McInnis said. “Our whistleblower client, Deborah Yannicelli, did the right thing. She saw that untrained home health care workers with false certifications were being assigned to elderly clients and brought her concerns to the attention of Medicaid program overseers.”
Yannicelli has received close to $2 million in whistleblower rewards from New York and the United States by providing information responsible for settlements by four defendants in the Home Alone investigation: Extended Home Care; Excellent Home Care; Nursing Personnel; and Friendly Home Care, Inc.
Read the McInnis Yannicelli Settlement News Release
Related filed court documents:
Original Complaint Filed Nov. 5, 2007 (PDF)
Friendly Federal Settlement Agreement (PDF)
Friendly State of NY Settlement Agreement (PDF)
Stipulation of Dismissal and Order (PDF)
Excellent NY State Settlement Agreement (PDF)
Extended NY State Settlement Agreement (PDF)
Nursing Personnel NY State Settlement Agreement (PDF)
Excellent US Settlement Agreement (PDF)
Extended US Settlement Agreement (PDF)
Nursing Personnel US Settlement Agreement (PDF)
New York Non-Profit Serving Developmentally Disabled Children and Adults Settles Whistleblower Complaint Alleging False Billing at Queens and Brooklyn Day Habilitation Centers
(New York City) — A non-profit serving the developmentally disabled in three states falsely billed New York State Medicaid for day habilitation client services for five years even though its own attendance records showed some developmentally disabled clients were not present, according to allegations in separate whistleblower settlements between the provider and New York State and federal governments, Manhattan-based Qui Tam Whistleblower Attorney Timothy J. McInnis of McInnis Law announced.
EiHAB Human Services, Inc., (“EIHAB”) headquartered on South Conduit Avenue in the Springfield Gardens section of Queens, New York, falsely billed the governments for day habilitation according to the settlement agreements. While not admitting liability or conceding that the governments’ and the relators’ claims were well founded, EIHAB paid $54,000 to New York State and $36,000 to the United States. In addition, EIHAB was required to retain a compliance monitor approved by New York State who will send quarterly reports on the non-profit’s services billed to Medicaid, according to the agreement.
Read the EIHAB News Release from McInnis Law
Read the EIHAB Amended Complaint
Read the EIHAB Federal Settlement Agreement
Read the EIHAB New York State Settlement Agreement
Read the EIHAB Stipulation and Order
Drug To Improve Appetite in HIV and Cancer Patients Aggressively Off-Label Marketed For Nursing Home, Even Hospice, Patients According to Complaint Unsealed With Federal, State Whistleblower Settlements and Criminal Fines Totaling More Than $45 Million by Par Pharmaceuticals
Death, Deep Vein Thrombosis, and Toxic Reactions Leading to Impaired Kidney Function Were Side Effects in Elderly Yet Drug Manufacturer Created Separate Nursing Home Sales Force to Off-Label the Drug, According to NYC-Based National Qui Tam Whistleblowers’ Attorney Timothy J. McInnis, Esq.
(NEWARK, NJ) –For at least four years, drug manufacturer Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc., and its subsidiary Par Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (together “Par”) risked the lives of senior citizens across the U.S., by illegally off-label marketing to the elderly Megace ES, a prescription approved only to help HIV and cancer patients gain weight by increasing their appetite, qui tam whistleblowers’ attorney Timothy J. McInnis announced.
Read the McInnis Law News Release
Read the Par Pharmaceuticals Settlement Agreement
Read the U.S. Attorney’s News Release
The Key Relators’ Original Complaint
The Princeton Review Admits NYC After-School Tutoring Fraud Charges, Falsifying Attendance, Agrees to Pay Up to $10 Million
(New York City) —The Princeton Review received millions of federal dollars for operating an after-school tutoring program for underprivileged students at underperforming schools by falsifying attendance – which continued even after its vice president in charge was alerted to the fraud – Princeton Review’s owners admitted today by settling fraud allegations, Qui Tam Whistleblowers’ Attorney Timothy J. McInnis announced.
For 46 months ending in June 2010 Princeton Review falsely billed the United States under the Supplemental Educational Services (“SES”) program. They submitted falsified attendance sheets, which included forged signatures, according to the Settlement Agreement among the United States, which filed its own fraud Complaint, the qui tam whistleblower represented by McInnis, and the corporate owners of Princeton Review.
The United States, in May 2012, intervened in the Qui Tam Whistleblower case originally filed in 2009 by the Law Office of Timothy J. McInnis, against The Princeton Review and a former employee at the Review’s SES tutoring division. The Government’s fraud Complaint allege forging of student signatures, falsifying sign-in sheets, and providing false certifications for those attendances. Federal funds were involved under the No Child Left Behind law’s response to underperforming public schools.
In January 2013 the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced fraud guilty pleas by two former Princeton Review directors, along with civil settlements by the two former directors, and a former Princeton Review vice president.
Read the McInnis Law News Release
Read the Princeton Review Settlement Agreement
Read the U.S. Attorney’s May 2012 News Release
The Government’s Complaint
The Relator’s Complaint
Read the U.S. Attorney’s January 2013 News Release
Read the January 2013 Princeton Review Green Settlement and Dismissal
US ex rel Jane Doe v. The Princeton Review, Inc., Stephen Green, and Ana Azocar (index number 09 CIV 6876 (BSJ)
Westchester Medical Center Agrees to Repay $7 Million to Federal, State Governments; Admits Eight-Plus-Year Medicaid Outpatient Fraud at Hospital’s Behavioral Health Center; Government Intervenes, Settling Qui Tam Whistleblower Case Originally Filed 15 Months Ago by Manhattan-Based Whistleblowers’ Attorney Timothy J. McInnis, Esq. on Behalf of Former High-Ranking Medical Center Employee
Read the federal Government’s Complaint-in-Intervention in the $7 Million Westchester Medical Center Case
Read the News Release from McInnis Law in the $7 Million Westchester Medical Center Case
Read the Federal Stipulation and Order of Settlement and Dismissal in the $7 Million Westchester Medical Center Case
Read the McInnis Law First Amended Complaint in the $7 Million Westchester Medical Center Case
Read the Notice of Intervention in the Westchester Medical Center Case
Read the Unsealing Order in the Westchester Medical Center Case
Hospital and Corporate Parent Pay $9 Million To Partially Settle Medicare Fraud Case Alleging Seven Years of False Billing for In-Patient Admissions Instead of Observation Services and Out-Patient Treatments
Additional Qui Tam Whistleblowers’ Allegations Still Pending Resolution, According to Manhattan-Based Qui TamWhistleblower Attorney Timothy J. McInnis, Esq.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ex reI. JOHN DOE AND JANE DOE Plaintiffs, v. AHS HOSPITAL CORP., ATLANTIC HEALTH SYSTEMS, INC., OVERLOOK HOSPITAL, et al. U.S. District Court, Newark, NJ: Civil Action No. 08-2042 (WJM)
(SUMMIT, NJ) – Overlook Hospital and parent AHS Hospital Corporation which operates three north Jersey hospitals, have agreed to pay more than $9 million to the U.S. Government to partially settle Qui Tam Whistleblower allegations of Medicare fraud and false billing over a seven-year-period, according to attorney Timothy J. McInnis, of McInnis Law in New York City, (WhistleblowerLegal.com) who represents the two whistleblowers who brought the case on behalf of the United States in 2008.
As alleged in the Complaint which is being partially settled, AHS Hospital Corporation, Atlantic Health Systems, Inc., and Overlook Hospital (“AHS”) frequently billed Medicare Part A for services provided to elderly persons under more expensive in-patient billing codes. Instead, the care provided to these elderly patients should have been billed under less expensive “observation” or “out-patient” procedure codes, the Complaint states.
Read the Complete AHS $9 Million Qui Tam Whistleblower News Release from McInnis Law
Read The AHS Whistleblower Complaint
Read The AHS Whistleblower Settlement Agreement
