Florida Drug Kickback Investigation May Proceed Despite Suit

Civil investigative demands federal prosecutors issued to an individual and a pharmaceutical company in order to determine if they violated the False Claims Act by participating in a drug kickback scheme were proper, a Florida federal court said.

Mihir Taneja and Belcher Pharmaceuticals LLC unsuccessfully argued that issuing CIDs for documents and other information was improper because they related to a pending FCA suit in which the government had already intervened, Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida said Monday.

Intervening in a whistleblower case doesn’t divest the government of authority ...