Defacto Debarment: Broad Contracting Prohibitions For Many Expatriate Corporations
Client Alert | 1 min read | 07.10.09
On July 1st , the FAR Council issued a broad-reaching prohibition on using fiscal year 2006-2009 appropriated funds for contracting with any corporation (or subsidiary of a corporation) that is an inverted domestic for the purposes of the Internal Revenue Code (26 USC 7874) or would be considered an inverted domestic under the Code except for the fact that the inversion transactions were completed on or before March 4, 2003. This new rule contains a much broader prohibition on federal contracting than any previous statute or regulation, applying the tax law definition of inverted domestic (and eliminating the 2003 grandfather provision), instead of the ;narrower definition contained in the Department of Homeland Security statute (6 USC 395).
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
