"Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Agrees to Pay $15M to Settle Fraud Allegations Related to Scientific Research Grants"

From a Justice Department press release two weeks ago (I learned about the case just today from the excellent Science Fictions podcast [Tom Chivers & Stuart Ritchie] [formerly The Studies Show], one of the few podcasts to which I pay to subscribe):

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc. (Dana-Farber) has agreed to pay $15,000,000 to resolve allegations that, between 2014 and 2024, it violated the False Claims Act by making materially false statements and certifications related to National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants….

As part of the settlement, Dana-Farber admitted that its researchers used funds from six NIH grants to conduct research that resulted in 14 publications in scientific journals containing misrepresented and/or duplicated images and data. The publications reused images to represent different experimental conditions; duplicated images to represent different testing conditions, mice, and/or timepoints; or rotated, magnified, or stretched images. Further, Dana-Farber admitted that a supervising researcher failed to exercise sufficient oversight over these researchers, and that Dana-Farber spent funds from those six NIH grants that were unallowable.

As part of the settlement, Dana-Farber also admitted that another researcher received four NIH grants after submitting grant applications that discussed a journal article authored by the researcher but did not disclose that certain images and data in that article were misrepresented and/or duplicated. The United States contends that Dana-Farber caused the submission of false claims to NIH by falsely certifying compliance with grant terms and conditions, spending grant funds on unallowable expenses, and obtaining grants through false and misleading statements.

Dana-Farber cooperated with the government in this matter and received credit under the Department's guidelines for taking disclosure, cooperation, and remediation into account in False Claims Act cases. Among other actions, Dana-Farber summarized voluminous materials relevant to the government's investigation, voluntarily disclosed additional allegations of research misconduct relevant to the government's investigation, voluntarily produced materials without a subpoena, sought to resolve this matter expeditiously, accepted responsibility for its conduct, and implemented remedial measures.

The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Sholto David. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. David will receive $2,625,000 under today's settlement….

You can see the Settlement Agreement for more details, including a list of the 14 potentially affected publications and their authors.

Comments

[Longtobefree]

And, of course, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc. is permanently barred from receiving any federal money of any kind in the future?

[Eugene Volokh]

Let me ask you this: Say a police department has a couple of police officers who are found to have violated the law (e.g., perjures himself in a trial). Say there is evidence that police officials failed to exercise sufficient oversight over the officers. Say these were a few of the many officers in the department, and that there's no sign of a pervasive, systemic problem, though there's no doubt that there was criminal misconduct by the officers.

Should the state cut off all funds to the police department? Require the city to contract with the sheriff's office instead, or perhaps with a neighboring city? Or should the state take the view that the department is still on balance providing a valuable public service, and that the public shouldn't be deprived of the benefits of that service just because there was some misconduct within the department?

[Stupid Government Tricks]

That's not a very good analogy. Dana-Farber doesn't have a monopoly, unlike police departments. Their miscreants don't get to retire early with nice fat taxpayer pensions.

There's also no indication of what happened to the Dana-Farber officials who facilitated this fraud.

Among other actions, Dana-Farber summarized voluminous materials relevant to the government's investigation, voluntarily disclosed additional allegations of research misconduct relevant to the government's investigation, voluntarily produced materials without a subpoena, sought to resolve this matter expeditiously, accepted responsibility for its conduct, and implemented remedial measures.

Did anyone actually get fired, fined, barred from receiving any further funding, or otherwise punished? I have other thoughts regarding why they "sought to resolve this matter expeditiously".

A police department has lots of supposed-good cops who stood by and let the bad cops do bad and illegal things. Do those not-so-good cops get fired and barred from ever being a cop again? Does the police chief and supervising cops get to retire early with nice fat pensions?

[John F. Carr]

Is that a legal argument or a policy argument?

As a matter of policy, a credible threat of punishment for police misconduct would encourage police departments to reform. If Boeing had been convicted other contractors would think twice. But Boeing is too big to fail. Now Lockheed-Martin executives know their company is too.

As a matter of law, one bad apple can get a company disbarred. A corporation can be held liable for a crime committed by an employee in the course of business. A corporation can be criminally convicted when employees collectively, for failure of process or oversight, commit a crime although no person in the corporation had criminal intent.

[StephenM]

This is one of the few things this administrtion has done I agree with. As retired scientist there is too much research fraud and the Universities etc try to sweep it under the carpet. Even better, stop the institution applying for grants for year if it can be shown that they did not investigate properly.