Over 5 years ago, we filed a False Claims Act complaint against numerous defendants who we alleged were engaged in a widespread telemarketing pain cream scheme. The fraudsters committed fraud across the compound pain cream sphere, from fraudulently soliciting veterans and our elderly population for the cream, using teledoctors to “write” prescriptions for the these “patients”, to the pharmacies involved who recevied a kick back for filling these fraudulently obtained prescriptions. The government, through Medicare and Tricare, paid exorbitant amounts for these creams. Our client was second to file. Mr. Thornton filed his case approximately one month before we filed ours. In the world of False Claims Act cases, this time gap matters. The first to file typically has the rights to the case. The government just reached a settlement with the telemarketing arm of the scheme.
Click here to see the DOJ’s press release.