Sterling, Kaplan Beat ‘Copied and Pasted’ Education Fraud Claims

Sterling Capital Partners LP and Kaplan Inc. showed that a whistleblower’s claims accusing them of falsely certifying compliance with U.S. Department of Education student loan requirements must be dismissed under the False Claims Act’s public disclosure bar, an Illinois district court ruled.

Edward Allen’s claims mimicked allegations found in public sources like prior lawsuits and a news article published five years before he filed suit, Judge Ronald A. Guzmán of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said Wednesday.

Sterling and Kaplan showed that Allen raised allegations that were “copied and pasted” from the complaint in United ...