Duke University agreed to pay the US government $112.5 million Monday to settle a lawsuit relating to a technician’s fabricated and falsified research data used to obtain funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies.

The settlement amount represents reimbursement of federal grant money and appropriate penalties for False Claims Act violations.

A Duke University employee filed the lawsuit under seal in 2014 alleging violations of the False Claims Act. Specifically, that between 2006 and 2013, the Clinical Research Coordinator, Erin Potts-Kant, committed fraud in various forms; from “manipulating data to outright manufacture of data in lieu of actually performing experiments.” She used the fraudulent research to co-author “38 publications in scholarly journals with fellow Duke University researchers.” Potts-Kant’s job duties as Research Coordinator were to “ensure compliance with protocol guidelines and requirements of regulatory agencies … identify problems and/or inconsistencies.” She has pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery and paid restitution to Duke.

Several changes are expected to follow this settlement, including implementation of an Advisory Panel on Research Integrity and Excellence and an Executive Oversight Committee to oversee “the ongoing implementation of Duke’s research excellence initiative.”