HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Cory Fein Law Firm announces an $8.88 million settlement, unsealed in August 2024, resulting from a False Claims Act qui tam case it filed on behalf of its whistleblower client, a Texas physician with information about an alleged kickback scheme. The June 2024 settlement includes payment of a 19% ($1,688,000) relator’s share to the Cory Fein Law Firm’s client. The case is United States ex rel. J.R., M.D., v. Andrew Gomes, et al., No. 4:18-cv-04650, S.D.Tex., and the settlement agreement is available by emailing cory@coryfeinlaw.com.
Cory Fein commends his physician client for providing the information that made the case possible and the S.D. Texas U.S. Attorney’s office (particularly Julie Redlinger and Andrew Bobb) who worked with him extensively on the case and obtained the settlement.
The settlement alleges that Dr. Andrew Gomes and his affiliated companies (known as National Interventional Radiology Partners PLLC or NIRP) established a network of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) office-based labs that were engaged in an illegal kickback scheme involving podiatrists and doctors investing in PAD labs and referring patients to the labs in order to increase the value of their investments. The complaint alleged Gomes established and developed multiple PAD clinics in Texas by recruiting podiatrists and primary care physicians to invest in the clinics and refer patients to the clinics to maximize the value of their investments. The procedures performed at these clinics (including arteriograms, angiograms, angioplasties and atherectomies) are highly compensated procedures.
The DOJ’s press release is available at: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/nirp-and-founder-pay-nearly-9m-resolve-alleged-kickback-referral-violations.
The Cory Fein Law Firm represents whistleblowers in qui tam cases (where the whistleblower seeks recovery on behalf of the Government and can be entitled to a relator’s share of the recovery) as well as retaliation cases where whistleblowers can recover damages suffered from retaliation caused by their protected whistleblowing activity.