ST. PAUL, Minn. – U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright has entered a judgment against Defendants Cameron-Ehlen Group, Inc. dba Precision Lens and its owner Paul Ehlen in the amount of $487,048,705.13.
On February 27, 2023, a federal civil jury concluded that the Defendants violated the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute by paying kickbacks to ophthalmic surgeons to induce their use of the Defendants’ products in cataract surgeries reimbursed by Medicare. The jury found that 64,575 false claims were submitted to Medicare due to the Defendants’ conduct, which resulted in $43,694,641.71 in damages to Medicare.
Under the False Claims Act (FCA), a person or entity found to have violated the FCA is liable to the United States Government for a minimum civil penalty of $5,000 per false claim and three times the amount of damages sustained by the Government. In this matter, the amount included $358,445,780 in statutory penalties and an additional $131,083,925.13 in trebled damages, resulting in the total amount of $487,048,705.13.
As proven at trial, the Defendants provided kickbacks to physicians in various forms, including travel and entertainment. The United States identified multiple examples of trips, including high-end skiing, fishing, golfing, hunting, sporting, and entertainment vacations, often at exclusive destinations. For many of the trips, the Defendants transported physicians to luxury vacation destinations on private jets. These included trips to New...
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