Inayat Ali Hemani
Whistleblower & Qui Tam Practice Group Co-Chair
Biography
Inayat Ali Hemani is a Whistleblower & Qui Tam Practice Group Co-Chair and a Partner in the New York office of Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, a national law firm with offices in Washington, DC, New York, California, Tennessee, and Maryland. He received his bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University in 2008 and his law degree from New York University School of Law in 2012.
Mr. Hemani works on sealed and unsealed qui tam/whistleblower cases involving fraud against the federal and state governments. He has worked on several successful qui tam cases alleging violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Trade Agreements Act. In addition to qui tam cases, Mr. Hemani has worked on submissions to the SEC, CFTC, and IRS under their whistleblower programs
Mr. Hemani also represents employees in discrimination and retaliation matters, by representing them in litigation and confidentially negotiating severance agreements.
Mr. Hemani speaks Hindi and Urdu fluently and has a working knowledge of Arabic.
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Prior to joining Sanford Heisler Sharp, Mr. Hemani worked with the Taxpayer Protection Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General where he investigated and prosecuted New York State False Claims Act cases involving procurement fraud and tax fraud. He worked on an investigation of Office Depot for overcharging the state resulting in a $475,000 settlement, an investigation of Bristol-Myers Squibb for failure to pay state franchise taxes that resulted in a $6.2 million settlement, and on United States of America, et al. ex rel. Shaw v. CA, Inc. resulting in a $11 million settlement for fraudulent pricing practices.
While in law school, Mr. Hemani represented Iraqi refugees seeking to appeal adverse decisions in their asylum applications and helped conduct a fact-finding trip on the conditions of Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria as co-chair of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project. He also participated in NYU’s Civil Litigation Clinic with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Credentials
EDUCATION
- J.D. New York University School of Law 2012
- Articles Editor, Annual Survey of American Law
- B.A. The George Washington University 2008
CLINICS
- Government Civil Litigation Clinic
BAR ADMISSIONS
- New York 2013
- New Jersey 2013
PUBLICATIONS
Major Cases
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX REL. DERRICK V. HOFFMAN-LA ROCHE LTD ET AL.
The Relator’s Complaint alleges that in 2013, Roche paid Humana a kickback in exchange for Humana placing Roche’s diabetes testing products on its Medicare Advantage formularies. Read More
NAGAN CONSTRUCTION, INC. FALSE CLAIMS ACT LAWSUIT - $831,000 SETTLEMENT
Mr. Yasti, a former employee of Nagan Construction, alleged that Nagan systematically failed to comply with the terms of its construction contracts with the federal and New York State Governments that required the company to pay its workers the prevailing wage under the Davis-Bacon Act and related laws. Read More
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ET AL. V. BON SECOURS NEW YORK HEALTH SYSTEM, INC., ET AL.
Relator asserts that between December 2004 until 2015, Bon Secours Health System, Inc., Bon Secours New York Health System and Schervier Long Term Home Health Care Program defrauded Medicaid and Medicare by filing millions of dollars in false claims for home health services provided to elderly and homebound patients. Read More
UNITED STATES EX REL GIPSON v. PATHWAY GENOMICS CORPORATION
Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, along with Aashish Y. Desai of the Desai Law Firm, P.C., represented Relator Monique Gipson, who sued San Diego-based Pathway Genomics in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California under the whistleblower provisions of the federal False Claims Act, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, and the relevant provisions of the false claims acts of the states and the District of Columbia pertaining to healthcare fraud. Gipson was a former sales representative at Pathway Genomics with first-hand knowledge of the company’s wrongdoing. Read More
U.S. EX REL SIMMONS v. MERIDIAN (M.D. TENN.)
Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP won a $5.1 million qui tam settlement against Meridian Surgical Partners LLC, an investor in an Ambulatory Surgical Center (“ASC”). The whistleblower, represented by the firm and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleged that Meridian violated the federal Anti-Kickback statute and the False Claims Act by paying unlawful remuneration to ambulatory surgical center (“ASC”) owners to physicians to induce referrals of patients to ASCs. Read More
UNITED STATES EX REL COX v. SMITH & NEPHEW (W.D. TENN.)
Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP won a $11.3 million qui tam settlement against Smith & Nephew one of the world’s largest medical device manufacturers. The whistleblower, represented by the firm and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleged that Smith & Nephew violated the Trade Agreements Act (“TAA”) and the False Claims Act by selling products to the Government that were manufactured in countries with which the United States is not a trading partner, under contracts governed by the TAA. Read More