Jeffrey T. Sprung

Partner
Seattle Office

Mr. Sprung is a partner at Hagens Berman, where he has worked since 1994. Mr. Sprung specializes in government fraud “qui tam” suits brought under the False Claims Act, representing whistleblowers serving as private Attorneys General.

He has sued a variety of companies, including national health care companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers for health care fraud; a prominent scientific research institution for NIH grant fraud; a major bank for fraud in the securitization of mortgage loans; an ambulance company that resulted in what at the time was the second-largest recovery in the ambulance industry’s history; a big-four accounting firm for defrauding the U.S. Department of Justice; contractors for the U.S. Department of Energy concerning accounting fraud at the largest nuclear clean-up site in Hanford, Washington; and military contractors for procurement fraud.

Mr. Sprung's expertise also includes prosecuting antitrust class actions involving claims of price-fixing. He has been actively involved in price-fixing cases involving the wood products, chemical, and paper products industry. Cases on which Mr. Sprung assisted have recovered over $120 million to purchasers of oriented-strand board, a type of wood building product, and over $139 million to purchasers of polyether polyols, a chemical used in a variety of foam products.

Prior to joining Hagens Berman, Mr. Sprung was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he specialized in civil fraud matters. He won the first civil suit for mail, wire and bank fraud brought in the District of Columbia, as well as the first civil suit brought by the government to punish insider trading in the mortgage-backed securities market.

Mr. Sprung is active in the legal and civic community. He was editor and contributing author of a leading practitioners' guide on civil legal remedies in United States courts for hate crimes. He has spoken on the False Claims Act to various law schools, including the University of Washington School of Law, and at meetings of Seattle and national bar associations. He is past president and current board member of Seattle non-profit the Kavana Cooperative and currently sits on the board of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest.

He is a member of the Washington State Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, and the Association of Former Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

Notable Cases:

• Novation
  A suit against the largest group-purchasing organization for hospitals and healthcare institutions in the country. The case alleged that Novation solicited and accepted kickbacks from device maker Becton Dickinson that inflated the cost of medical supply contracts, which directly affected the costs borne by the Medicaid and Medicare programs. The case settled in 2010 for $3 million, with the whistleblower recovering a 28% relator’s share.
• OSB
  This suit alleged that the manufacturers of oriented strand board (OSB) conspired in violation of federal antitrust law to restrict the supply of OSB structural panel products and raise prices. The case settled in full in 2009 for $120.7 million.
• Polyether Polyols
  The complaint in this case alleged that the defendant manufacturers unlawfully agreed to fix, raise, maintain, or stabilize the prices of, and allocate the customers and markets for, Polyether Polyol Products sold in the United States and its territories during the period January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2004, in violation of the federal antitrust laws. The case is ongoing, with settlements to date of $139.3 million.

Professional Organizations:

• Washington State Bar Association
• The Federal Bar Association
• Association of Former Assistant U.S. Attorneys