Scientific Fraud Suit to Be Settled for $1.6 Million : Whistle-blowers: UC will pay $625,000 over charges that researcher faked data to get federal funds.
In the first scientific fraud case settled under federal whistle-blower laws, the University of California and another major college will pay nearly $1.6 million to settle charges that a former researcher faked results in a federally funded project, Justice Department officials announced Friday.
UC has agreed to pay $625,000 and the University of Utah has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that John L. Ninnemann, an immunology researcher, obtained National Institutes of Health funding by falsifying data on a project investigating immune system suppression after burn injuries.
At UC San Diego, where Ninnemann conducted part of his research, a spokeswoman said the school agreed to settle only to stem further legal costs, and not because it agrees with the allegations.
“In settling, we haven’t admitted that the person committed intentional research fraud,” spokeswoman Denine Hagen said. “We’ve been saying all along that there was no intentional misrepresentation or fraud at UCSD.”
The landmark settlement stems from charges made in a 1989 lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court by J. Thomas Condie, Ninnemann’s research assistant at Utah during the early 1980s. Condie sued under provisions of the federal False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to file anti-fraud lawsuits on behalf of the government and share in any court awards if the legal action is successful.
After investigating Condie’s claims, the Justice Department took over the lawsuit in 1990 and accused both schools of receiving more than $1 million in federal funds based on Ninnemann’s fraudulent work. Utah received the federal money from 1981 to 1984 and UC San Diego from 1984 to 1988, when Ninnemann transferred his work to California.
Federal officials said Utah administrators became aware of Ninnemann’s fraud after a 1983 internal investigation but covered up by calling it sloppy research. The government also said the school lied when it promised that all problems had been corrected.
Based on that false assurance, Utah officials were also liable for Ninnemann’s continued NIH grant when it was transferred to UC San Diego, federal officials alleged. But they also blamed UC San Diego administrators for failing to carefully monitor Ninnemann’s research as promised.
But in January, when UC San Diego administrators disclosed the terms of the settlement, they denied allegations of mismanagement. They said a blue-ribbon committee was impaneled as soon as Condie raised questions of fraud in 1988, before his lawsuit, and the group found no evidence of intentional misrepresentation.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the government will recoup $1.03 million while Condie will receive $311,100. An additional $255,000 will pay for Condie’s attorneys fees and costs, U.S. officials said Friday.
In addition, both schools will create programs to prevent scientific fraud or misconduct and, in a separate agreement, Ninnemann will issue retractions and corrections to the scientific journals in which he published the bogus data.
Hagen said Ninnemann left UC San Diego to teach at a small college but declined to say where.
