A postdoctoral research staff member discovered the fraud and filed a whistleblower lawsuit under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.
New York City public university Hunter College and the former director of its HIV studies center have agreed to pay a combined $575,000 to settle allegations they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly misusing National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding while falsely certifying their compliance with federal requirements.
The case, initiated by a qui tam whistleblower, alleged that former Hunter psychology professor Jeffrey Parsons-Hietikko improperly diverted tens of thousands of dollars in NIH grant funds to pay for personal expenses and to compensate HIV studies center staff for unrelated projects.