(RALEIGH) -- North Carolina has recovered $31.8 million from drug maker GlaxoSmithKline as part of the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, Attorney General Roy Cooper.

“Wrongdoing by drug companies and health care providers wastes taxpayers’ money, deprives needy patients of care, and inflates medical costs for all of us,” said Cooper.  “We’re continuing our crackdown on fraud and abuse in our health care system.”

The settlement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the latest recovery made by Cooper’s Medicaid Investigations Division, which has recouped nearly $500 million over the past decade and helped to convict hundreds of individuals on criminal charges.  The division has nearly doubled in size in recent years with the addition of new attorneys, investigators, criminal information analysts and support staff, allowing it to take on 46 percent more investigations than before.

Of the $31.8 million recovered by North Carolina, nearly $3.9 million will go to North Carolina public schools. The remaining funds will go to support Medicaid efforts in the state.  The funds are part of a $3 billion national settlement to resolve allegations that GSK used various illegal schemes to market and price drugs including Paxil, Wellbutrin, Advair, Lamictal, and Zofran.  The national settlement includes $2 billion in civil penalties and $1 billion in criminal fines.

The settlement GSK resolves allegations that company unlawfully made false representations about drug safety and efficacy, offered kickbacks to doctors, marketed certain drugs for off-label use (uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration), and underpaid rebates owed to taxpayer-funded programs including Medicaid.

As part of the settlement, GSK also agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges that it violated the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in connection with misbranding Wellbutrin and Paxil and failing to report certain clinical data regarding Avandia to the FDA.

“With more investigators, agents and prosecutors on the health care fraud beat, we’re working harder than ever to stop Medicaid cheaters,” Cooper said.