CHICAGO—A former cancer research physician at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Center for Cancer in Chicago will pay $475,000 to the federal government to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit, officials announced last week.
Former employer Melissa Theis, who became a whistleblower in this case, will receive more than $80,000 from the federal government for bringing the false claims to light in a civil lawsuit she filed against Dr. Charles L. Bennett, officials said.
Theis will also received $498,100 from a separate civil settlement with Bennett. Theis worked as a purchasing coordinator in hematology and oncology in Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, officials said.
Bennett allegedly billed federal grants for family trips, meals and hotels for himself and friends, and “consulting fees” for unqualified friends and family members, including his brother and cousin.
Theis’ suit, which the government later settled on her behalf, alleged that the defendants submitted false claims to the federal government Bennett and others spent the grant funds on goods and services that did not meet National Institutes of Health standards and guidelines, according to officials.
The settlement covers improper claims that Bennett submitted for reimbursement from the federal grants for professional and consulting services, food, hotels, travel, conference registration fees, and other expenses that benefited Bennett, his friends, and family from Jan. 1, 2003, through Aug. 31, 2010.
Bennett, of Columbia, South Carolina,. did not admit liability. The government didn’t concede that its claims were not well founded.
Bennett agreed to pay the settlement by Dec. 1, 2014.
In a lawsuit filed in January, the government contended that Bennett submitted false claims under research grants from the National Institutes of Health.
The agreement covers allegations that false claims were submitted to the federal government for costs that Bennett incurred on his grant-funded research projects involving adverse drug-events, multiple myeloma drugs, a blood disorder known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and quality of care for cancer patients.