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Northwestern To Pay Almost $3M To Settle Research Grant Fraud Claims

(CBS) -- Northwestern University has agreed to pay the government almost $3 million because one of their cancer researchers was living large on federal dollars.

NU To Pay Almost $3 Million To Settle Grant Fraud Claims

The U.S. Attorney's office says that Dr. Charles Bennett submitted false claims to the National Institutes of Health, with some money going for family dinners and vacations.

"Some of which went to Dr. Bennet's brother and cousin instead of the money going to research that Dr. Bennett was contracted to and obliged to provide," said U.S. Attorney's spokesman Randall Samborn.

Samborn says the Lurie Cancer researcher who blew the whistle on Dr. Bennett will get about a half million dollars.

A federal suit against Dr. Bennett is pending in U.S. District Court.

"This settlement, combined with the willingness of insiders to report fraud, should help deter such misconduct, but when it doesn't, federal grant recipients who allow the system to be manipulated should know that we will aggressively pursue all available legal remedies," said Northwestern President Morton Shaprio in a press release.

A federal suit against Dr. Bennett is pending in U.S. District Court.

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