Filed: Feb. 05, 2009
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED _ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 08-10282 FEBRUARY 5, 2009 _ THOMAS K. KAHN CLERK D. C. Docket No. 05-03147-CV-JEC-1 JAMES R. BRICKMAN, GREENLIGHT CAPITAL, INC., Plaintiffs-Appellants, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX REL, Plaintiff, versus BUSINESS LOAN EXPRESS LLC, f.k.a. Business Loan Express, Inc., BUSINESS LOAN CENTER, LLC, f.k.a. Business Loan Center, Inc., ROBERT TANNENHAUSER, MATTHEW MCGEE, GEORG
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED _ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 08-10282 FEBRUARY 5, 2009 _ THOMAS K. KAHN CLERK D. C. Docket No. 05-03147-CV-JEC-1 JAMES R. BRICKMAN, GREENLIGHT CAPITAL, INC., Plaintiffs-Appellants, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX REL, Plaintiff, versus BUSINESS LOAN EXPRESS LLC, f.k.a. Business Loan Express, Inc., BUSINESS LOAN CENTER, LLC, f.k.a. Business Loan Center, Inc., ROBERT TANNENHAUSER, MATTHEW MCGEE, GEORGE..
More
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED
________________________ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 08-10282 FEBRUARY 5, 2009
________________________ THOMAS K. KAHN
CLERK
D. C. Docket No. 05-03147-CV-JEC-1
JAMES R. BRICKMAN,
GREENLIGHT CAPITAL, INC.,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX REL,
Plaintiff,
versus
BUSINESS LOAN EXPRESS LLC,
f.k.a. Business Loan Express, Inc.,
BUSINESS LOAN CENTER, LLC,
f.k.a. Business Loan Center, Inc.,
ROBERT TANNENHAUSER,
MATTHEW MCGEE,
GEORGE HARRIGAN,
DOES 1-100,
Defendants-Appellees,
ALLIED CAPITAL CORP.,
et al.,
Defendants.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Georgia
_________________________
(February 5, 2009)
Before BARKETT, PRYOR and FARRIS,* Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
James R. Brickman and Greenlight Capital, Inc. (collectively, “Relators”)
appeal from the dismissal of their complaint against Business Loan Express, LLC,
f/k/a Business Loan Express, Inc.; Business Loan Center, LLC, f/k/a Business
Loan Center, Inc.; Robert Tannenhauser; Matthew McGee; and George Harrigan
(collectively, “BLX”). The complaint, filed under the False Claims Act (“FCA”),
31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., alleged that BLX had participated in a secret scheme to
defraud the United States Small Business Administration out of tens of millions of
dollars.
The district court ruled that the Relators’ claims of fraud were based upon
information that had been publicly disclosed or was otherwise publicly available
*
Honorable Jerome Farris, United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit, sitting by
designation.
2
prior to the filing of the action, and thus, the public disclosure bar of the FCA, 31
U.S.C. § 3730(e)(4)(A), deprived it of subject matter jurisdiction to resolve the
fraud claims.
We find no reversible error. The uncontested factual record demonstrates
that the complaint in this case was derived entirely from information available to
any member of the public and that the Relators had no direct, personal knowledge
of any of the parties or transactions at issue here.
AFFIRMED.
3