WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) today filed an opening appeal brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a multi-million dollar fraud case against Planned Parenthood (PP) affiliates in California.
ACLJ is representing a federal whistleblower and former employee of the PP affiliate in Los Angeles who claims the affiliates illegally marked up the supposed cost of various birth control drugs when seeking government reimbursement, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of overbilling – at taxpayer expense.
The federal False Claims Act (FCA) forbids government contractors from submitting “false or fraudulent” claims for payment. The FCA also authorizes private individuals to bring suit against the offenders to recover the fraudulently obtained funds.
“No one should be permitted to scam the public treasury for profit,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. “The FCA was designed to remedy such illegal runs on taxpayer money.”
When the former PP staffer sued the PP affiliates in federal court, charging the defendants with having fraudulently overbilled the state and federal governments in the amount of tens of millions of dollars, the prominent law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP began representing the PP defendants in the case for free. The Skadden attorneys asked the federal district court to dismiss the case on technical jurisdictional grounds.
The federal district court accepted the Skadden arguments in part, and dismissed the case. ACLJ attorneys then entered the case to handle the appeal.
“The basic question at this point is whether the former PP employee is a proper whistleblower under the False Claims Act,” said Sekulow. “The answer is 'Yes.'
“The ACLJ brief dissects and refutes the arguments of PP's attorneys point by point, explaining why the court of appeals should reverse the lower court's judgment and reinstate the lawsuit.”
President Obama has called for federal funds to the Title X familly planning program, which subsidizes Planned Parenthood, to be increased by $10 million to a total of $317 million.
Click here to read the ACLJ brief.