United States ex rel. John Doe v. Staples, Inc.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

This False Claims Act case is about pencils — Chinese pencils, to be precise. Anonymous relator John Doe alleges that defendants — including three major office-supply retailers — imported pencils that they knew were made in China, but to avoid paying substantial antidumping duties imposed on Chinese-made pencils, falsely declared to United States Customs officials that they were made elsewhere in Asia. The district court determined that the essential elements of the alleged fraud were already in the public domain, and so,…