Weill Medical College of Cornell University will pay $2.6 million to resolve charges it violated the False Claims Act.
The suit, originally brought by a whistleblower, alleged that the college defrauded the government in connection with research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health and the Dept. of Defense.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a press release that the college made false statements in grant applications. In one instance, a principal researcher failed to disclose the extent of her other projects, as required by federal guidelines. This deprived the government of its right to assess the researcher’s ability to perform the projects in the grant applications. The researcher’s commitments exceeded 100% of her available time.