A former Duke University lab technician will receive $33.8 million of a $112 million settlement after blowing the whistle on government fraud.

Joseph Thomas worked in a research lab with former technician Erin Potts-Kant, who allegedly turned in false research results between 2006 and 2018. Her endeavors were financed by money from 30 grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal grant providers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2015, Thomas filed the whistleblower lawsuit, which was taken over by the DOJ.

“Taxpayers expect and deserve that federal grant dollars will be used efficiently and honestly,” local U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin said in a statement. “May this serve as a lesson that the use of false or fabricated data in grant applications or reports is completely unacceptable.”

Researcher Suspected of Government Fraud

Potts-Kant purportedly faked research and fabricated results in experiments with mice and the effects of diesel exhaust inhalation, among other research endeavors. Her results were used by many research papers, and at least 17 retractions have been issued. Her results had been used in a minimum of 50 other studies.

According to some fellow researchers at Duke, the university missed red flags that something was wrong with Potts-Kants’s work. One researcher said the speed with which her work was being published should have been an indication something was amiss.

Potts-Kant faced embezzlement charges in 2013 after being accused of taking $25,000 for clothing and other personal expenses. After that incident, lab directors then questioned her research’s integrity.

Thomas said the original raw data didn’t appear to match the final results or raw data was not found at all. In addition, fellow researchers weren’t able to verify that Potts-Kant ever made a single purchase of methacholine, a drug she insisted she used in her experiments.

Potts-Kant pled guilty to two counts of forgery and paid Duke restitution.

Court documents indicate Potts-Kant admitted she falsified data that she allegedly used to obtain federal grants in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Duke also admitted to knowing about the faked data, but the timing of Duke’s knowledge of the falsifications that amount to government fraud is not clear.

Thomas wrote notes in August 2014 that were later revealed in court. He indicated one of his colleagues “said that everyone just has to look out for themselves” because Duke University might terminate the employment of everyone involved “if this gets worse, which is why everyone is trying to leave, they think are going to be fired.”

Thomas filed suit under the False Claims Act, a law that allows private citizens to sue on behalf of the U.S. government when they find evidence of fraud committed against the government. Four out of five whistleblower cases involve healthcare fraud committed against government health programs like Medicare.

If the action results in a settlement or judgment, the typical whistleblower receives anywhere between 15 and 30 percent of the recovered money, which may include damages that are triple the amount involved in the initial fraud.

Thomas said he will always be fascinated by science and wants to help restore confidence in the integrity of scientific research.