TDMR was informed yesterday that indeed there are qui tam relators associated with the Xerox/Conduent Medicaid fraud settlement and that their lawyers have now filed a motion to obtain their share of the $235 million in proceeds.
The relators are Christine Ellis, DDS, Madelayne Castillo, Mary Espinoza, Mireya Miranda, Yarubi Morales, Deelcy Ocon, Sealed Party No. 1, and Sealed Party No. 2, per the motion document available below.
Dallas qui tam attorney James “Rusty” Tucker kindly emailed us the following along with the actual court motion and the press release (also available below) sent out on the matter:
“I am an attorney from Dallas and represent several whistleblowers who filed qui tam actions pursuant to Section 36.110 of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act against ACS/Xerox in 2012. As reflected on pages 3-4 of the Settlement Agreement between the State and Conduent/Xerox and in Court filings in the State’s case against Xerox (June 9, 2014 Motion filed by the State in its case against Xerox), the State did in fact intervene in at least 6 cases (5 of them where I represented the Relators) where whistleblowers had filed suit against Xerox. Also, you will note on paragraph H on page 14 of the State’s Settlement agreement with Conduent that the State is taking responsibility for paying Relator fees and attorneys fees and expenses out of the settlement proceeds, and that if Conduent is held responsible for any liability it can deduct that amount from the settlement proceeds owed to the State.
“Because of the interventions in our cases and several other reasons set forth in the attached Motion, I along with attorneys representing Dr. Ellis filed a Motion the day after the settlement was announced to seek our rightful share pursuant to Section 36.110 of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act to 15-25% of the recovery by the State of Texas in this settlement, plus our attorneys fees and expenses that we are also entitled to by that same statute. Please see attached. We are seeking a hearing on that Motion in the near future.”