Brian P. Kenney

Founding Partner

Mr. Kenney is a founding member of KEMY. He has led the firm’s development of anti-fraud litigation and whistleblower practices. He also represents government agencies as a special prosecutor and in internal investigations. Mr. Kenney has over twenty five years experience trying complex civil and criminal tax and fraud matters, both as a federal prosecutor and federal criminal defense attorney.

Mr. Kenney recently represented the whistleblower in United States v Estar, Inc., a complex, international scheme in which the United States, as of June of 2007, has recovered over $60 million as a result Mr. Kenney’s client disclosing a stock and tax fraud scheme orchestrated by a Taiwanese based corporate conglomerate. Mr. Kenney has tried federal criminal tax cases as both defense counsel and prosecutor. He has also represented dozens of tax whistleblowers involving tax shelters, transfer pricing, and other sophisticated tax frauds. He was recently invited to participate in a Senate Finance Committee roundtable to discuss the new tax whistleblower law enacted in 2007. He is also a lecturer in the evolving area of tax whistleblower law.

Mr. Kenney False Claims Act practice has included both plaintiff and defense practices. In 1995, he also the lead attorney in a case that successfully pioneered the use of the Anti-Kickback Act as a basis for a False Claims prosecution in United States ex rel Weissman v. Mediq Imaging Services, Inc. et al.  The use of the Anti-Kickback Act as a predicate offense for a False Claims Act has now been accepted by both the Department of Justice and the federal Courts. In 1995, Mr. Kenney also defended one of the first cases brought under the False Claims Act against healthcare consultants for providing advice to clients in United States v Metzinger.

Mr. Kenney is currently the lead attorney in numerous ongoing qui tam matters under the False Claims Act addressing pharmaceutical fraud as well as healthcare and defense contracting fraud, most of which remain under seal and undisclosed to the public. He is lead attorney in the following ongoing publicly disclosed False Claims Act qui tam litigations: United States ex rel  Julie Williams et al v. Renal Care Group et al (pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleging a national scheme to defraud Medicare by an international provider of dialysis services); United States, ex rel Joyce Roberts et al v KRG Capital, LLC and Trinity Hospice, Inc., et al (pending in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, alleging a scheme to defraud Medicare by one of the nation’s largest providers of hospice services); United States, ex rel Leo Sweeney et al v Select Medical Corp., et al (pending in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, alleging a national scheme to defraud Medicare by improper billing of physical therapy services);  United States ex rel Greg Westfall et al v. Axiom Worldwide, Inc et al (pending in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Florida, alleging a national scheme to defraud Medicare by the false billing of services for medical devices).

Over the past fifteen years, Mr. Kenney has been the lead attorney in numerous successful qui tam cases in which he represented the whistleblower, including: United States ex rel Kelly v. Biotrax Inc., Fresensius Medical Care AG, (Fresensius, an international medical services provider, paid $18 million to settle qui tam action for numerous improper testing schemes relating to dialysis centers); United States v. Genesis,  (National nursing home chain agreed to pay 10.4 million to settle various claims of defrauding Medicare); United States v Sun Health Systems, Inc., (National nursing home operator liable for over $10 million as a result of qui tam relating to improper cost reports and improper coding.); United States ex rel Hendricks v. Northwestern Human Resources, Inc., (Pennsylvania’s largest provider of social services pleas guilty to a federal felony and agrees to pay approximately $7.8 million dollar to settle criminal and civil actions judgment for failure to comply with state and federal Medicare regulations relating to staffing, coding,

billing, and cost report issues); United States ex rel Weissman v. Mediq Imaging Services, Inc. et al, (One of first anti-kickback case successfully prosecuted under the False Claims Act for a mobile imaging company paying kickbacks in return for ordering tests, results in approximate 4.5 million judgment); United States ex rel Basore v. Plummer Precision Optics, (Weapons manufacturer’s failure to test, falsification of reports and falsification of custom’s reports leads to approximate $3 million dollar judgment, sale of company, and debarment); United States ex rel George Brouder v. Polaroid Corporation  (Polaroid agrees to pay $3.2 million for providing false bid data to the General Services Administration and TINA violations.) United States ex rel Folle v. Option Care et al (Option Care, a pharmacy chain agrees to pay $1.4 million to settle claim that is defrauded Medicare/Medicaid in billings related to Synagis.) United States ex rel Lisa Fager v. Jackson County Ambulance Services (Ambulance Company pays 1.4 million settlement as a result of fraudulent coding for services). United States ex rel Moculzski v.Kidspeace Corporation , (A provider of social services agrees to pay $1.9 million to settle false claim action for failure to comply with state and federal regulations relating to staffing, coding and busing issues.) Feman v Fresensius Medical Care AG,(Former employee successfully sues for retaliation for investigating False Claim under subsection 3729(h) of the False Claims Act despite never having filed a False Claims action.); United States v Columbia University (University settles claim for fraudulent coding for services by physicians in surgery department, wrongful termination case settled.); United States ex rel Nancy Bernard v Best Care Home Health Inc (Home health care agencies pay claims to settle fraudulent coding and staffing issues.); United States ex rel Quaicoe v Center for Pain Management (Pain management clinic sued for coding violations and not providing proper services); United States ex rel Denton v Health Ventures, Inc (National nursing home operator liable for improper coding and staffing issues); United States ex rel Hoffman v Kessler Hospital et al, (Fraud related to improper coding and improper provision of lymphedema pumps and other services results in criminal prosecution and civil fines against medical doctor running the program); United States ex rel Strelow v National Medical Care, Inc. et al, (improper coding and unbundling of CPT Codes leads to multi-million dollar settlement). United States ex rel Speer v Princeton Biomedical Lab Inc et al, (Unbundling of CPT lab codes leads to judgment and disbarment of provider of lab services).

From 1983 to 1987, Mr. Kenney served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania where he prosecuted white collar fraud and drug cases. In 1983 Mr. Kenney successfully tried the first case brought in Philadelphia under the Continuing Criminal Enterprise statute in which a drug dealer received a life without parole sentence in United States v Figueroa. He also successfully prosecuted a ground breaking series of bribery cases involving IRS revenue agents in Philadelphia in which over a dozen accountants, taxpayers, and former IRS revenue agents were convicted of bribery and tax evasion charges. Mr. Kenney also successfully prosecuted numerous defense contractors and a series of government fraud and bribery cases arising out of the Defense Personnel Support Center in Philadelphia.

Prior to forming KEMY, Mr. Kenney worked as a partner in one of Philadelphia’s most successful commercial litigation firms where he specialized in the use of the RICO statute in commercial litigation as well as in internal investigations and white collar criminal defense work.

Mr. Kenney has the highest AV Rating by Martindale Hubbell and has been consistently ranked as one of Philadelphia’s Super Lawyers by Philadelphia Magazine. He is a former clerk for the Honorable Joseph Leo McGlynn of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He is a 1980 cum laude graduate of theGeorgetown University Law Center and a 1976 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Delaware where he played varsity basketball.

Contact tel:        610-940-9099 Ext. 12 email:   bkenney@kemy-law.com 25 years of complex trial and appellate experience in federal and state courts.