, holding that a whistleblower can bring a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against a telecommunications carrier over reimbursements from an industry-funded program to provide internet and phone service to schools and libraries. In doing so, the Court ruled that the carrier’s requests for reimbursements from a private fund constituted “claims” under the False Claims Act because the government provided a portion of the money in that fund.
This case involves the Education-Rate (or E-Rate) program, which was established under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and subsidizes internet and other telecommunications services for schools and libraries in the United States. To finance those subsidies, Congress required telecommunications carriers to pay into a fund known as the Universal Service Fund (the Fund), administered by the private, nonprofit corporation Universal Service Administrative Company, which in turn collects and distributes money in the fund to beneficiaries pursuant to FCC regulations. Those regulations prohibit carriers from charging schools and libraries more than they would charge a similarly situated residential customer — i.e., the “lowest corresponding price” rule. Once the price is set, the school or library can obtain its subsidy by paying the carrier a discounted price and requiring the carrier to recover the remainder from the Fund, or by paying the unsubsidized price and then seeking reimbursement from the Fund.
Relator Todd Heath, a school district...
The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago filed a lawsuit last month alleging that a group of conspirators engaged in a racketeering scheme to defraud the archdiocese by falsely claiming priest sexual a...