Patton Boggs has brought on John "Jay" Darden from the Justice Department's Fraud Section as a partner in the Washington office. Darden, who starts work today, will advise clients facing health care fraud and abuse allegations, government inquiries and white-collar criminal charges.
Darden, 39, spent four years at the Justice Department as assistant chief of the Fraud Section in the Criminal Division. He supervised the investigation and prosecution of health care fraud and anti-kickback violations in districts across the country.
Darden (Washington & Lee University, U.Va. Law) also worked on health care fraud initiatives such as the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team and the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Since its inception in 2006, the strike force has brought charges against more than 560 defendants who collectively billed the Medicare program for over $1 billion in fraudulent claims.
Darden said that he thinks some provisions of the recently passed health care reform legislation will likely create in additional work for lawyers. “But with health care already such a huge part of our economy, there has already been a concerted effort on the part of the DOJ and the SEC to target health care fraud and abuse,” Darden said. “There has been and will be for some time a need for lawyers who know the trends in that sector and who can advise on what’s coming down the pike.”
Darden also handled Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases at the Justice Department. He was part of a team that worked on the investigation of automaker Daimler AG. In March, Daimler agreed to pay $185 million in fines and penalties to the federal government to settle charges that it violated FCPA bribery provisions by paying tens of millions of dollars to officials in 22 countries to win lucrative contracts.
“At the end of the day, we believed that was an appropriate outcome for the department and for the company. It was a pleasure to be a part of that,” Darden said.
Before joining DOJ, Darden was an associate in King & Spalding’s Atlanta office.
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