Duke University will pay $112.5 million to the federal government to settle a lawsuit that alleged a research technician embezzled federal grant funds that had been awarded to the university from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies.
An article in Duke Today noted that the university discovered the possible research misconduct in 2013 after the technician was fired for embezzling money from Duke, which also occurred over the same period. The Thomas v. Duke suit was filed by a former Duke employee, Joseph Thomas, under the False Claims Act, a federal law that allows people not affiliated with the government to file actions on behalf of the government and receive a portion of damages.
As such, Thomas, the whistleblower, will receive $33.75 million of the $112.5 million settlement. The rest will go to the government, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The payment to the government includes both reimbursement for grants received as a result of the falsified and fabricated data and associated penalties.
According to the Duke Today article, “Thomas v. Duke was filed under seal in federal court in 2014—after the research technician was discovered to have embezzled federal grant funds that had been awarded to the university, but before Duke understood the extent of her research misconduct. Duke reported this to the appropriate agencies and repaid the embezzled funds along with all grant-funded compensation and benefits that had been paid to the technician. The technician eventually pled guilty to two counts of forgery and paid restitution to Duke.”
According to a news release from the DOJ, “The settlement resolves allegations that between 2006 and 2018, Duke knowingly submitted and caused to be submitted claims to the NIH and to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that contained falsified or fabricated data or statements in 30 grants, causing the NIH and EPA to pay out grants funds they otherwise would not have. Specifically, the United States contends that the results of certain research related to mice conducted by a Duke research technician in its Airway Physiology Laboratory, as well as statements based on those research results, were falsified and/or fabricated.”
Following a three-year review of more than 50 potentially compromised research grants, Duke concluded that the technician had falsified or fabricated data that had been included in grant and payment requests submitted to the NIH and other agencies over the period of her employment. Duke also retracted scientific publications that relied on the data, university officials said.
More specifically, the research technician’s alleged misconduct included experiments that involved measuring the lung function of laboratory mice using highly specialized equipment; the work was was not connected to human subject or clinical research, Duke officials said.
Per the DOJ, “The resources utilized by NIH and EPA to fund important research and clinical programs across the nation are limited,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “Today’s settlement demonstrates that the Department of Justice will pursue grantees that knowingly falsify research and undermine the integrity of federal funding decisions.”
“We expect Duke researchers to adhere always to the highest standards of integrity, and virtually all of them do that with great dedication,” Duke President Vincent E. Price, said in a statement. “When individuals fail to uphold those standards, and those who are aware of possible wrongdoing fail to report it, as happened in this case, we must accept responsibility, acknowledge that our processes for identifying and preventing misconduct did not work, and take steps to improve.”
