Whistleblower Takes Down CVS Caremark as Successor to Longs
Written By: Rheingold, Valet, Rheingold, Ruffo & Giuffra LLP
Haroon Aziz, a former pharmacy technician for Longs, alleged he was fired
by Longs when he exposed fraudulent billing practices. Longs was billing
Medicaid on prescriptions that health insurance companies had already
paid for. The ultimate settlement was $975,000. Amazingly, the Department
of Justice declined to prosecute this because they did not have the resources.
However, under the
Whistleblower statutes, a claimant can prosecute the case on behalf of the government, which
Mr. Aziz and his counsel did. He outlined his repeated contacts with Longs'
management who allegedly told him to just be a good employee and do what
he was told. Defendants in cases such as these can face federal and state
fines of $10,000 for
each
act of
fraud.
Posted By
Rheingold, Valet, Rheingold, Ruffo & Giuffra LLP
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