Augustine M. Ripa

Augustine (Augie) Ripa became a partner of Whistleblower Law Collaborative (WLC) after serving 12 years at the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Fraud Section (DOJ), which handles or supervises all False Claims Act (FCA) matters nationwide and in partnership with the 93 U.S. Attorney’s Offices.  At DOJ, he served in a leadership role as the Senior Counsel for Health Care Fraud and prosecuted some of DOJ’s most complex and cutting-edge health care FCA cases.  His efforts on those matters, combined with those of his teammates, resulted in over $2.1 billion in FCA settlements or judgments.

As Senior Counsel for Health Care Fraud, Mr. Ripa also supervised DOJ attorneys on numerous health care cases, served as a go-to resource for his office and AUSAs on complex fraud schemes and investigative strategies, advised leadership on health care FCA enforcement policy issues, and served as a key participant on the new DOJ/HHS FCA working group, which is dedicated to enhancing the HHS/CMS – DOJ partnership at the leadership level to combat health care fraud through FCA enforcement.  Mr. Ripa also regularly conducted speaking engagements or training on key health care FCA issues for DOJ attorneys and AUSAs, including leading DOJ’s annual Civil Health Care Fraud training for new attorneys. Drawing on knowledge of key HHS/CMS programs and a technical background, he was also instrumental in conceiving, establishing, and managing DOJ’s current health care data analytics capabilities and served as a DOJ participant in the FOCUS Initiative, which is designed to strengthen DOJ’s working relationship with whistleblowers concerning data analytics.

Through this casework and leadership experience, Mr. Ripa developed deep knowledge of nearly all facets of the DOJ’s health care fraud enforcement landscape and built strong working relationships throughout the entire DOJ and USAO community. This insight gives him a strong sense of what makes a compelling FCA case and what DOJ is looking for when weighing whether to invest resources in an FCA matter, and he can help whistleblowers navigate those considerations in even the most complex cases.

Mr. Ripa’s casework at DOJ focused on key health care FCA issues, giving him substantial experience across many core sectors of the health care enforcement landscape and current enforcement priorities.  For example, he has extensive experience prosecuting FCA cases premised on violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.  This includes handling for DOJ many of the government’s cases alleging that drug companies illegally subsidized the Medicare co-pays of their own products through sham third-party foundation arrangements in order to eliminate patient and doctor price sensitivity and facilitate large price hikes on those same drugs.  In particular, Mr. Ripa and his team filed the government’s first complaint making such allegations after intervening in two whistleblower cases, United States of America ex rel. Strunck et al. v. Mallinckrodt ARD, Inc., No. 12-CV-0175 (E.D. Pa.), and United States of America ex rel. Clark v. Questor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., No. 13-CV-1776 (E.D. Pa.), and secured the first federal court opinion unequivocally endorsing such allegations as a theory of FCA liability.  He has personally handled or contributed to numerous cases against pharmaceutical manufacturers pursuing this or similar theories, resulting in over $1 billion in FCA recoveries.

Mr. Ripa also has deep experience in complex pharmaceutical pricing and Medicaid Drug Rebate Program matters.  For example, he served as the lead DOJ attorney securing a landmark $465 million settlement — the largest of its kind at the time — against the drug manufacturer Mylan concerning the alleged misclassification of its brand-name product EpiPen as a generic drug for Medicaid purposes to evade the additional rebates Mylan owed Medicaid for its dramatic price increases on EpiPen.  United States ex rel. Sanofi-Aventis US LLC v. Mylan Inc., et al., No. 16-CV-11572 (D. Mass.).  He also handled for DOJ the government’s case against drug maker Mallinckrodt, alleging that the company knowingly underpaid Medicaid rebates for its drug Acthar Gel, owed on account of increasing Acthar’s price from approximately $50 per vial to over $40,000 per vial, by mischaracterizing it as a “new” drug for Medicaid purposes after FDA merely approved an additional use for it.  This matter, United States of America et al. ex rel. Landolt v. Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Inc., No. 18-11931-PBS (D. Mass.), resulted in a $260 million global settlement combined with the kickback matters referenced above.

Mr. Ripa handled several other matters concerning pharmaceutical pricing or regulatory obligations as well, including a settlement requiring the drug company Nostrum to pay up to $50 million for underpaying Medicaid rebates on its drug nitrofurantoin (which eventually led to the exclusion of the company’s CEO by HHS-OIG).  He also handled the whistleblower case, U.S. ex rel. Albermarle, LLC v. Akorn Operating Company LLC. (D. Mass. 2021), resulting in a first-of-its-kind settlement of $7.9 million against drug maker Akorn, alleging that the company caused the submission of false claims to Medicare Part D (which does not cover OTC drugs) by continuing to sell three of its generic drugs under obsolete prescription-only labeling even after their brand name equivalents converted to OTC and the generics should have followed suit.

In addition, Mr. Ripa handled numerous cases involving laboratory diagnostic testing, including the whistleblower cases United States ex rel. Ashton v. Logan Laboratories, LLC, et al., Case No. 16-4583 (E.D. Pa.) and United States ex rel. Cho v. Surgery Partners, which resulted in a $41 million settlement against a reference laboratory and two individuals, and a $14.5 million settlement against Laboratory Corporation of America resolving allegations of duplicative or unnecessary urine drug testing.  He was on the team that handled the numerous qui tam cases filed against Millennium Health (formerly Millennium Laboratories) alleging medically unnecessary urine drug and genetic testing and kickbacks paid to physicians, resulting in a $256 million settlement—the largest of its kind at the time.

Mr. Ripa also has substantial experience handling or advising on FCA matters involving many other health care fraud schemes, including those impacting Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage); Medicaid Part D (prescription drug plans); FDA drug and device regulatory or approval obligations; government drug pricing metrics such as Average Manufacturer Price, “base date” Average Manufacturer Price, Best Price, Average Sales Price, Direct and Indirect Remuneration, and the 340B drug pricing program; pharmaceutical manufacturers, large pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers; Medicare Part B fee-for-service payments for wound care, laboratory services, durable medical equipment, and other professional services by individual providers; Medicare Part A (hospitals and facilities); and schemes involving other health care programs, such as the Affordable Care Act, accountable care organizations, state Medicaid programs, and military health care programs.

While at DOJ, Mr. Ripa received numerous awards for his contributions, including: a DOJ Civil Division Special Commendation for Outstanding Service; the HHS-OIG Inspector General’s Award for Excellence in Fighting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse; an FBI Certificate of Appreciation; and the Taxpayers Against Fraud Public-Private Partnership Award.  Early in his career, he was named the DOJ Civil Division “Rookie of the Year.”

Prior to government service, Mr. Ripa spent six years in private practice representing clients in FCA and white-collar defense matters, including as an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP in Washington, DC.  He also maintained an active pro bono practice in public-interest impact litigation and representing individuals through sensitive and difficult circumstances, including successfully securing asylum for a client targeted in her home country for her work with Western media.

Mr. Ripa earned his J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School, where he served on The George Washington International Law Review, and his B.S. in environmental science and B.A. in political science, both with high honors, from Lehigh University, where he was an R.C. Eckardt Scholar and Martindale Honors Program Student Associate.