Submitted: December 14, 2010
Before LOKEN, ARNOLD, and BYE, Circuit Judges.
The Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP”), established under Part B of the Higher Education Act of 1965, 20 U.S.C. § 1071 et seq., consists of four programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education (DOEd) to provide various types of financial assistance that are paid to private lenders whose loans enable students to afford higher education — the Stafford Loan Program, the Supplemental Loans for Students Program, the PLUS Loan Program, and the Consolidation Loan Program. See 34 C.F.R. Pt. 682. Nelnet, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Citigroup Inc. are private Lenders participating in these programs. In this qui-tam action, Rudy Vigil, a former Nelnet loan advisor, alleges that certain Nelnet marketing practices were continuing violations of the FFELP statutes and regulations that render Nelnet liable under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. § 3729(a), for three times the amounts paid on all claims submitted by Nelnet over a five-year period for interest rate subsidies, special allowances, and reimbursement of loan defaults. Vigil joined Chase and Citigroup as defendants, alleging they were knowing participants in a conspiracy to submit false claims. Vigil appeals the district court’s*fn1 dismissal of his third amended complaint (the “Complaint”) for failure to plead fraud with sufficient particularity and for failure to state a claim. See Fed. R. Civ. P. (9)(b), 12(b)(6). Reviewing the district court’s grant of defendants’ motion to dismiss de novo, and drawing all reasonable factual inferences in favor of Vigil, the nonmoving party, we affirm. See United States ex rel. Joshi v. St. Luke’s Hosp., Inc., 441 F.3d 552, 555 (8th Cir.) (standard of review), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 881 (2006).
