Tenet Healthcare is under criminal investigation in connection with a False Claims Act case.

The criminal investigation arose out of a qui tam action — United States of America, ex. rel. Ralph D. Williams v. Health Management Associates, Inc., et al. —  filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tenet and four its hospital subsidiaries are defendants in the qui tam action, which alleges that they violated the federal and state anti-kickback statutes and false claims acts.

Both the Georgia Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Justice have intervened in the qui tam action.

In its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tenet reported that on April 10, 2015, the Department of Justice “informed us that our four hospital subsidiaries that are defendants in the qui tam action have also been designated as targets of the government’s criminal investigation.”

“For super-irony, remember that this same hospital company was nailed for such a massive fine under the False Claims Act that it changed its name to Tenet Healthcare to reflect its new ethical ‘tenet,’” said Patrick Burns of Taxpayers Against Fraud. “Then this company went ahead and designed the largest hospital fraud in history for which they paid $900 million after ripping off the government a multiple of that.”

Tenet has settled numerous major False Claims Act, three of which made the Top 100 False Claims Act Settlements list — one in 2006 for $900 million, another in 2006 for $62 million and one in 2003 for $54 million.