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PENNSYLVANIA FIRM AGREES TO PAY $1.75 MILLION TO SETTLE AUDITS AND FALSE CLAIMS ACT ALLEGATIONS

PENNSYLVANIA FIRM AGREES TO PAY $1.75 MILLION TO SETTLE AUDITS AND FALSE CLAIMS ACT ALLEGATIONS Allegheny Singer Research Institute of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay the government $1.75 million to resolve two outstanding audits and allegations of False Claims Act violations arising out of the firm's administration of a $21.3 million award under NIST's Advanced Technology Program. The award was intended to fund a joint venture to develop a searchable multimedia database for the healthcare industry.

The settlement was the result of nearly three years of OIG audit and investigative work that identified millions of dollars of questioned costs charged to the project, and uncovered substantial evidence that Allegheny Singer had submitted multiple false claims to NIST between June 1999 and September 2000 in order to satisfy a portion of the firm's required $6.7 million cost share. We found that employees of the firm had created false time records for two physicians unassociated with the project – forging the signature of one of them – and charged the project for the purchase of medical equipment that was never used, resulting in NIST's reimbursement of Allegheny Singer for approximately $280,000 in fraudulent claims.

Allegheny Singer denied the government's allegations of wrongdoing, but agreed to the settlement in order to finally resolve all outstanding audit and investigative issues between the parties. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, NIST will receive about $1.6 million, with the balance of the funds to be returned to the U.S. Treasury. The settlement agreement was reached between the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, NIST, and Allegheny Singer.

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