DOJ To Speed Up Review Of Qui Tam Benefits Fraud Claims

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it's speeding up the agency's review of whistleblower complaints accusing contractors of defrauding state-administered benefits programs that are funded by the federal government, in violation of the False Claims Act. 

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Hospital Operator, Execs Ink $32M FCA Settlement With Feds

By Sarah Jarvis

Psychiatric hospital operator Oglethorpe Inc. has agreed to pay $32 million and be excluded from all federal healthcare programs for 10 years to resolve allegations it knowingly failed to return Medicare overpayments in violation of the False Claims Act.

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Calif. AG Sues 23andMe Over Lapses In Genetic Data Security

By Allison Grande

California moved Thursday to sue the genetic testing company formerly known as 23andMe over a 2023 data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 7 million customers, arguing that the company failed to implement even the most basic security measures and misled consumers about the scope of its safeguards and severity of the breach.

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Justices Urged To Probe Post-Mallory Forum-Shopping Flood

By Linda Chiem

Legal advocates said Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Mallory ruling unleashed a wave of forum-shopping by plaintiffs lawyers using states' business-registration laws to sue out-of-state companies, and that the justices should take up the case again to stop litigants from unconstitutionally interfering with interstate commerce.

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Ohio Governor Pauses Data Center Tax Breaks

By Maria Koklanaris

Ohio became the most recent state to signal the growing unease in giving tax breaks to data centers as Gov. Mike DeWine said he directed the state tax credit authority to pause consideration of any new exemption requests.

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Ex-VP Accuses Wells Fargo Of Race, Disability Bias

By Hayley Fowler

A former executive hired to help oversee Wells Fargo's compliance with a federal consent order over an unauthorized account scandal has accused the bank of race and disability discrimination, saying he was retaliated against and ultimately fired after lodging internal complaints of disparate treatment of Black employees.

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CFPB's Return-To-Office Plan Could Spur More Exits

By Jon Hill

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving forward with a return-to-office plan that will involve shifting to new headquarters, ending most telework and requiring field employees to relocate to the Washington, D.C., area starting this summer, Law360 has learned.

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Ex-TD Bank Worker Admits Role In $3M Customer Fraud Scam

By Dorothy Atkins

A former TD Bank NA financial service representative entered a plea deal in New Jersey federal court Wednesday, admitting to defrauding bank customers and bribing an employee at another financial institution to falsify bank records to facilitate a $3.4 million fraud scheme.

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SEC Fines David Lerner Associates For Reg BI Violations

By Sydney Price

New York-based brokerage firm David Lerner Associates Inc. will pay $200,000 to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that the firm failed on over 200 occasions to exercise reasonable care in recommending mutual fund shares to customers that caused them to pay higher transaction costs.

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Bilt Faces Dem Grilling Over Bank Partner Transition 'Turmoil'

By Sarah Jarvis

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Thursday that she wants answers from Bilt Rewards on reports that customers of the rent payment reward business have experienced transaction and payment issues stemming from the company's transition between bank partners.

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Financial Adviser Gets 2 Years For $3.7M Investment Fraud

By Gina Kim

A Pennsylvania financial adviser was sentenced to more than two years in prison in federal court Thursday after copping to wire fraud stemming from a scheme where he transferred over $3.7 million from the bank account of a fund he managed to another client's account, to recoup investment losses.

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CFTC Seeks To Join Kalshi Fight Over Rhode Island Ban

By David Steele

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked a Rhode Island federal judge to join Kalshi in its suit against the state of Rhode Island on Thursday, extending the commission's campaign to assert its regulatory authority over prediction markets.

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Kalshi Targets Minnesota Prediction Market Ban In New Suit

By Aislinn Keely

Kalshi is taking aim at a Minnesota ban on prediction markets that it says would turn it into a felon for operating in the state, filing a suit that follows a similar bid by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to block the state law.

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SEC OKs Paxos As 1st 'Blockchain-Native' Clearing Agency

By Aislinn Keely

Blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos said Thursday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has signed off on its clearing agency registration for blockchain-based settlement in what Paxos said is a first-of-its-kind approval.

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GreenSky Pays $10M To Settle Fraudulent Loan Claims

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas attorney general on Thursday announced that financial technology company GreenSky Holdings LLC has settled claims brought by multiple states accusing it of issuing fraudulent loans, paying $10 million in consumer restitution, civil penalties and other fees to the states.

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Feds Say Canadian Co.'s Auto Devices Violate Emissions Law

By Ganesh Setty

The federal government has accused a Canadian automotive accessory retailer in Washington federal court of selling certain aftermarket products designed to boost vehicle performance by bypassing existing vehicle systems meant to ensure a vehicle satisfies federal emissions standards.

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Conn. Town Challenges Mass. Waste Plant Near State Line

By Julie Manganis

The Connecticut border town of Enfield says Massachusetts environmental regulators improperly granted a permit for construction of a waste processing and transfer facility in nearby East Longmeadow, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Massachusetts state court.

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Wash. Tribes, River Group Fight FERC Hydro License

By Joyce Hanson

The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and nonprofit Columbia Riverkeeper have each sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the Ninth Circuit over the agency's issuance of a license for a hydroelectric project license.

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NC AG Can't Litigate Environmental Case, Biz Groups Say

By Abigail Harrison

The North Carolina Supreme Court should step in to prevent Attorney General Jeff Jackson from enacting his own policy vision — and subordinating agency regulation — through his ill-conceived environmental lawsuit, according to an amicus brief.

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Tesla Must Face Calif. Agency's Race Bias Fight In July Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California state judge has mostly rejected Tesla Inc.'s bid for a summary judgment win in the California Civil Rights Department's lawsuit alleging the electric-auto maker has allowed racism to run rampant at its Fremont factory, sending the high-stakes civil rights dispute to a July 20 jury trial.

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Shield AI Worker Alleges Data Fraud, 'Sexual Violence' By Exec

By Spencer Brewer

An employee hit Shield AI Inc. with a suit in Texas federal court Thursday, alleging the defense technology company engaged in data fraud, allowed a company executive to perpetuate "egregious acts of sexual violence," and retaliated against him after he spoke up.

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Paxton Says Mass. Court Can't Halt ActBlue Case In Texas

By Carolyn Muyskens

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged a Massachusetts federal judge to toss a lawsuit claiming his fraud allegations against Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue are politically motivated, saying the Bay State court cannot interfere in his Texas case.

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States Say Fed. Circ. Should Keep Tariff Block During Appeal

By Jack McLoone

The Federal Circuit shouldn't stay an injunction blocking the collection of Section 122 tariffs from two businesses and Washington state while the federal government appeals the trade court ruling because the appeal is likely to fail, the businesses and 24 states said Thursday.

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9th Circ. Won't Revisit FCA Ruling Over Drug Price Program

By Ganesh Setty

The Ninth Circuit has said it will not disturb its March ruling allowing a hospital chain to pursue a False Claims Act lawsuit against various pharmaceutical companies for allegedly causing the government to overpay for drugs under a discount program.

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Trans Patients Say Stanford Can't Give DOJ Medical Records

By Gianna Ferrarin

A group of transgender adolescents who received gender-related care at a Stanford Medicine hospital urged a California federal court to order the hospital not to turn over any of their medical records in response to a criminal subpoena issued by a grand jury in Texas.

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Ex-Perrigo Workers Say Lax Security Led To Cyberattack

By Gina Kim

Perrigo, a company that manufactures branded and private-label over-the-counter healthcare products, was hit with a proposed class action in Michigan federal court Wednesday following a cyberattack linked to a notorious hacking group that claims to have accessed personal data belonging to current and former employees.

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9th Circ. Warned Of Market Forces In Nexstar-Tegna Case

By Matthew Perlman

The National Association of Broadcasters told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court's view of the market in a case challenging the $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar and Tegna is inconsistent with its members' experience and contradicts industry data recently submitted to regulators.

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Athletes Decry Antitrust Immunity In College Sports Bill

By David Steele

College athlete advocacy groups have criticized a proposed bipartisan U.S. Senate bill that provides congressional oversight to college sports and allows athletes to have agents, but also limits player movement and compensation and grants the NCAA antitrust immunity.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Freight Brokers, Uber Lose Key Cases

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's green light of negligent hiring claims against freight brokers in highway crash cases and an adverse verdict against Uber in the sexual assault multidistrict litigation lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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GCI Wants To End Service In 6 Alaska Communities

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

GCI Communication Corp. has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to end certain telecommunications services in six Alaskan communities, arguing that other carriers offer those services.

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Dem Sens. Ask DOJ To Preserve Trump-IRS Settlement Docs

By Jack McLoone

Two Democratic Senate leaders asked the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve any records related to the settlement of President Donald Trump's suit against the IRS in a letter published Thursday, signaling that further investigations may be coming.

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How SEC, CFTC Proposal Would Ease Private Fund Reporting

While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s recent proposal to streamline and lighten certain confidential reporting requirements could bring welcome changes for many private fund advisers, sponsors should consider important nuances of its potential impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

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Visa's Agentic Payment Rules Expose Compliance Tensions

Visa's recently released framework clarifying how payments driven by artificial intelligence can occur without consumer-merchant interaction exposes compliance risks under disclosure and fee transparency laws that may require merchants and payment providers to rethink consumer protection as agentic commerce expands, say attorneys at Stinson.

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FERC Order May Alter PJM's Framework, Spur $1B In Refunds

A recent order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stands to reform how grid operator PJM Interconnection assigns transmission upgrade costs, with potentially sweeping implications for transmission owners, merchant transmission facilities and load-serving entities, including an estimated $1 billion in refunds and surcharges, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

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New Connecticut Law On Employers' AI Use Is Inventive

A recently passed Connecticut law regulating the use of artificial intelligence in employment decisions innovates by using third-party risk assessments to vet and certify AI models, and by recognizing a division of responsibility between developers and deployers, potentially influencing pending legislation in other states, say attorneys at Littler.

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Opinion

International Patent Licensing System Must Be Maintained

As foreign approaches to patent enforcement threaten to distort the licensing markets that underpin modern technology, courts and policymakers must take action to ensure that the standard essential patent framework is preserved, says Brian O'Shaughnessy at Dinsmore.

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Series

Studying Foreign Languages Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Studying Italian and Japanese has shown me that learning a new language can benefit a legal career in several ways, including by demonstrating the importance of approaching problems from a fresh perspective and the value of practicing patience with colleagues and clients, says Anna King at Genworth Financial.

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Florida High Court Adopts AI Policy For Lawyers

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday amended the state's rules to require those filing court documents to check any artificial intelligence-generated content for accuracy, and allow for sanctions if the content contains errors.

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Goldstein Says Bad Jury Instructions Warrant New Trial

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein said that the prosecutors who convicted him on 12 tax and mortgage fraud charges in February are now contradicting arguments they made at the end of his trial in their attempt to deny him a bench acquittal or new trial.

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King & Spalding Blocked From Exiting $300M Fraud Lawsuit

By Brian Steele

King & Spalding LLP and Lennon Murphy & Phillips LLC can't withdraw from representing clients in consolidated litigation over an alleged $300 million stock swindle, a Connecticut state court judge has ruled, saying the firms' motions ahead of a June trial lack good cause.

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Fla. Court Refers Atty To Bar Over Bogus Case Citations

By Madison Arnold

A Florida state appeals court has referred an appellant's attorney to the state's bar for disciplinary proceedings after filing a petition that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence and "raises frivolous arguments, misstates the law, and cites non-existent case law."

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Parents Demand 'Bad Faith' Sanctions In Camp Mystic Case

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic in Texas' Hill Country should be sanctioned over "bad faith" conduct in litigation over flooding deaths last summer, including purported misrepresentations to courts and regulators and an alleged remark by one of its attorneys to a plaintiffs' lawyer that he would "burn in hell," a state court has been told.

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Trump Considers Tech Entrepreneur For DOJ Grants Post

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump appears poised to nominate a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur for a top U.S. Department of Justice post that oversees grants and criminal justice programs.

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Ex-Fla. Chief Justice Fred Lewis Dies At 78

By Carolina Bolado

Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, who spent two decades on the bench of the Florida Supreme Court, has died at 78, the court announced Thursday.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Gupta Wessler's Deepak Gupta

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

In the decade and a half since starting his own firm, Deepak Gupta has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has won matters in state high courts from coast to coast, and has become a mainstay in federal appellate courts while building his plaintiff-side litigation boutique into a sought-after juggernaut.

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