Legal Watch: Risk of Whistleblower Suits Rises
By Sheldon E. Steinbach
A federal appeals court recently issued a decision that
increases college and university exposure to liability for alleged
violations of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The case—United
States ex rel. Main v. Oakland City University, 426 F.3d 914 (7th Cir.
2005)—is a qui tam action under the federal False Claims Act
(FCA).
In the lawsuit, Main, the plaintiff, alleged that as a
former recruiter for Oakland City University—a private, nonprofit
liberal arts institution in Indiana—he was compensated based on
the number of students he enrolled, an action prohibited under the HEA.
Main argued that the university violated the FCA because the institution
had agreed to comply with the incentive compensation prohibition when it
signed a Program Participation Agreement (PPA). (All institutions that
wish to participate in federal student aid programs must sign a PPA, in
which they agree to comply with numerous HEA requirements.) . . .
Excerpted from the winter 2006 issue of The
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