The past year has brought rough financial seas to Walgreens. As recently as this January we reported on Walgreens plans to possibly go private after closing underperforming retail stores and whole divisions such as VillageMD.
We said then that Walgreens (WAGS) is facing a serious reversal of fortunes to the tune of $billions$ of dollars. The numbers are jaw dropping….. about 10 years ago Walgreens’ market cap was more than $100 billion. They ended the year with a valuation of only $8 billion.
Earlier this month WAGS had yet another major problem to resolve…. a federal anti-kickback charge by the US government. In this case they were able to settle for $50 million.
This story is less about Walgreens and more about the fact that the government is still vigilant about anti-kickback schemes such as that conducted by WAGS. While the financial penalty my only sting, the impact to the company reputation and ability to qualify for other government programs can be impacted. Remember, under the federal False Claims Act, whistleblowers are entitled to a portion of whatever money the government is able to recover.
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Walgreens to pay $50M in anti-kickback case
- Company gave illegal discounts, government says
- Walgreens marketed a savings plan without checking if people were covered by Medicare or Medicaid, officials said.
