NEW JERSEY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING FIRM TO PAY $2 MILLION IN FALSE CLAIMS ACT SETTLEMENT
In a press release issued yesterday, New Jersey Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that Accutest Laboratories, an environmental testing firm based in Middlesex County, will pay the State $2 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the State and its agencies for payment. The State and its agencies contracted with Accutest to perform environmental tests and in 2013, a former-Accutest employee filed a whistleblower lawsuit claiming that the firm violated state and federal False Claims Acts by not following Environment Protection Agency requirements in the extraction and testing of certain semi-volatile organic compounds and that some laboratory technicians did not adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures or proper protocols.
This settlement is the largest non-Medicaid-related False Claims Act settlement entered into by the State since New Jersey’s False Claims Act took effect in March 2008.