Victory on appeal vindicates Tutera Group on fraud charges

After a two-year federal court battle, Tutera Group Inc. has been cleared of all claims that it defrauded the government.

The lawsuit was brought in Illinois by a whistleblower named August Bogina III in 2011 and was copied virtually verbatim from a prior lawsuit that didn't include accusations against the Kansas City company. It claimed that Tutera Group bought medical products from Medline Industries Inc. that included illegal bribes and kickbacks, which then were submitted as part of the total…