2008-07-23 05:53:06 -

- Goldberg Kohn Frederick Cohen Principal 312-201-3929 frederick.cohen@goldbergkohn.com or Goldberg Kohn David Chizewer Principal 312-201-3938 david.chizewer@goldbergkohn.com or Kohn Communications Diane Rumbaugh 805-493-2877 rumbaugh@earthlink.net Although no agreement has been signed, Amerigroup announced that a settlement was reached today stemming from the largest jury verdict ever awarded under the False Claims Act and the Illinois Whistleblower

Reward and Protection Act, according to Goldberg Kohn. A jury had originally handed down a $48 million verdict against Amerigroup in 2006 that by law was tripled to $144 million. An additional $190 million was added in civil penalties. Cleveland Tyson, a former Amerigroup vice-president of government relations, was the whistleblower who brought the Amerigroup misconduct to light.

Amerigroup was contracted by the Illinois Department of Public Aid (IDPA) to provide healthcare to Illinois Medicaid recipients. The jury found that Amerigroup deliberately avoided enrolling recipients with costly health conditions or who were pregnant and in their third trimester. These actions were taken while Amerigroup received IDPA payments calculated on Amerigroup providing healthcare to all enrollees.

"Amerigroup pocketed the IDPA money while leaving pregnant women to fend for themselves," says Fred Cohen, principal with Goldberg Kohn, a Chicago-based law firm and co-lead trial counsel representing Tyson. "Amerigroup tried to cheat the government and got caught. It was only because Cleveland Tyson had the courage to step forward that Amerigroup was punished for its actions."

The final settlement was reached as new federal legislation is being considered to ease restrictions on the whistleblower process. An amendment to the current False Claims Act is currently before Congress. The new legislation would remove obstacles that would otherwise prevent whistleblowers from seeking redress against contractors that are committing fraud against the federal government.

"The amendments and the cases to follow will create a need for more private-public partnerships like the team representing the plaintiffs in the Amerigroup case," says David Chizewer, co-lead trial counsel with Cohen in the Amerigroup case. "Goldberg Kohn invested $2 million in expenses and more than 25,000 hours in attorney time to take this case through trial. We partnered with first rate trial teams from The United States Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Illinois and Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office to bring this case to judgment."

Goldberg Kohn Represented Whistleblower