Saint Louis University has agreed to pay $1-million to settle allegations that its School of Public Health engaged in a scheme to defraud the U.S. government by overstating the time faculty members were spending on federal grants, federal officials announced today.

In exchange, the government will drop a lawsuit, but the Missouri institution will face increased scrutiny of its compliance with requirements for participating in research supported with federal grants, according to a news release from the office of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta.

The university, in a statement quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, denied that it had cheated the government and said it had agreed to the settlement to avoid legal costs.

The lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act by a former dean of the school, E. Andrew Balas. Dr. Balas will receive $190,000 as his share of the recovery in the case, the federal prosecutor’s statement said. —Charles Huckabee