Kimberly-Clark Beats Fraud Case Tied to ’60 Minutes’ Report

Kimberly-Clark Corp. defeated a whistleblower’s false claims case alleging the company supplied defective surgical gowns and other medical supplies to the government.

Whistleblower Frank Kromenaker, a former Kimberly-Clark employee, filed his lawsuit in December 2015 accusing the company of defrauding Medicare and the Department of Veterans Affairs by selling medical supplies that didn’t satisfy Food and Drug Administration standards.

But Kromenaker’s complaint violated the False Claims Act’s first-to-file rule because two prior related lawsuits were pending when he filed, Judge Steve C. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia said.

The two lawsuits put the ...