Jan 26, 2023 | Government Contract, Government Investigations
In a post published a couple weeks ago, we discussed the strides made by Georgia to legalize and facilitate the sale and use of medical cannabis in the state. One of the final steps to that end was the adoption of regulations that had been proposed by the Georgia...
Jan 24, 2023 | False Claims Act
On January 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that DePuy Synthes, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, agreed to pay $9.75 million to settle allegations it, through former sales representatives, improperly paid kickbacks to a surgeon in...
Jan 24, 2023 | Government Investigations, White Collar Crime
On January 20, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing of Mun Chol Myong (Mun), a national of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Mun was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to time served of 45 months’...
Jan 24, 2023 | Election Law
In May of 2020, Georgian Tomas Miko sued his then-State Representative Vernon Jones in federal court for allegedly violating Miko’s First Amendment rights when Representative Jones blocked Miko from his Facebook page after having “initially exchange[d] barbs...
Jan 17, 2023 | False Claims Act
Last week, the United States Supreme Court consolidated and agreed to hear two False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam cases out of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The issue in those cases is whether and when a defendant’s contemporaneous subjective understanding or...
Jan 17, 2023 | Criminal Matters
Callers posed as U.S. government officials told victims, mostly elderly, that he or she had won a prize, but before collecting it, the victim needed to pay taxes and fees. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), that is how a group defrauded more than 400 people...
Jan 17, 2023 | False Claims Act, Government Investigations
Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Advanced Bionics LLC, a California-based manufacturer of cochlear implant system devices, had agreed to pay more than $12 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) when it...
Jan 17, 2023 | False Claims Act
On January 9, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal judge sentenced Florida doctor, Michael Ligotti, to 20 years in prison for his role in a multi-year healthcare fraud scheme that took place from 2011 to 2020. Dr. Ligotti also surrendered his...
Jan 12, 2023 | Government Affairs, Government Investigations
For several years now, Georgia has been moving toward permitting medical cannabis sales in Georgia. In 2015, Haleigh’s Hope Act was signed into law, which allowed possession by qualifying patients of low THC oil, a form of medical cannabis, but notably the Act did...
Jan 10, 2023 | Government Affairs
In 2018, the federal government enacted the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp and hemp derivatives, including CBD. The Farm Bill, however, did not regulate CBD and instead acknowledged that the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) could regulate those products...
