Owen Foster is a whistleblower attorney at Phillips and Cohen. He brings more than a decade of civil and criminal litigation experience – most recently as an Assistant US Attorney for the Department of Justice in Vermont – to his work for whistleblowers in fraud cases.
His successful cases include criminal and civil investigations against Purdue Pharma, the largest criminal penalties ever imposed against a pharmaceutical company, including a criminal fine of over $3.5 billion, forfeiture of an additional $2 billion, and a civil resolution of $2.8 billion for False Claims Act violations.
Foster spearheaded DOJ’s efforts to combat fraud and kickbacks in the HealthIT industry and led investigations against electronic medical records companies, including negotiating the groundbreaking $155 million settlement with eClinicalWorks, LLC. and provisions critical for providing improved software quality and oversight. Foster also led successful investigations and settlements against electronic medical record companies Practice Fusion ($145 million civil and criminal recovery), Greenway Health, Inc. ($57.25 Million), and Modernizing Medicine ($45 million) for kickbacks and False Claims Act violations. Foster additionally led DOJ’s civil and criminal investigations into Schneider Electric, which resulted in an $11 million dollar resolution arising out of improper energy savings performance contract billing.
Before joining the Justice Department, Mr. Foster had a successful career as a securities and cybersecurity associate at Dechert, LLP, where he counseled leading financial services firms on cybersecurity requirements, and represented a mutual fund against billions of dollars of claims arising out of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Foster’s work has been recognized with some of the highest Justice Department honors, including the Director’s Award for Superior Performance in 2018, the Director’s Award for Superior Performance in 2020, and the Civil Division’s Perseverance Award in 2017. Foster and his team also received the Taxpayers Against Fraud’s Public-Private Partnership Award in 2017. Recognized with the “Rising Star Award” from the National Law Journal, Foster was named as one of the top 40 lawyers under 40 in Boston. He graduated from Columbia University School of Law and the University of Vermont. Foster is admitted to the bar in Massachusetts.