Verizon Defeats Whistleblower’s Mobile Hotspot Device Fraud Suit

A whistleblower failed to adequately allege that Verizon Wireless fraudulently billed the US government for defective mobile hotspot devices that a school district distributed to students during the Covid-19 pandemic, a federal district court said.

Scott Foster’s False Claims Act complaint must be dismissed because he didn’t identify with specificity a material misrepresentation by Verizon, Judge Sara E. Hill of the US District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma said in a Thursday order. Foster has 21 days to amend his complaint, Hill said.

Foster, an employee of Ardmore City Schools in Oklahoma, alleged in his 2021 complaint that ...