Settlements and judgments from cases involving fraud and false claims brought under the False Claims Act (FCA) totaled more than $3.5 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2015. That makes four years in a row that FCA recoveries have exceeded $3.5 billion. Of that $3.58 billion for FY 2015, a record…
You’d think that Congress would take care of its own. When it comes to benefits, it seems as if they always do. So it might astonish you to know that, of all the classes of people protected by whistleblower laws, Congressional staffers have been left out in the cold. They…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released its annual accounting to Congress regarding the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program. The latest report disclosed a 30 percent rise in whistleblower tips since 2012. In fiscal year (FY) 2015 alone, nearly 4,000 tips were collected. But that’s not all that the report…
One of the positives to arise from the 2008 financial crisis was the stiffening of regulations, and the protection of whistleblowers, regarding securities fraud, with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Under Dodd-Frank, the Office of the Whistleblower was established for the Securities Exchange Commission…
Medicare fraud is a huge illegal business that costs all of us. In fact, scamming Medicare has become so lucrative that Nigerian and Russian mobsters have gotten involved. One New York crime “family” moved to Florida, because Medicare fraud is safer than traditional criminal activities, and much more lucrative, according…
Whistleblowers perform an important service in our society, especially as companies grow bigger, corporate financial statements grow murkier, and cheating sometimes generates little more than a cynical shrug. Many whistleblowers have saved untold numbers of lives. Some have had their own lives threatened, and a few have died. At times…
When Joshua Harman decided to take on Trinity Highway Products LLC, questioning their redesign of a highway guardrail used on interstates across the United States, he was determined to expose what he saw as a safety hazard. A 2005 redesign of the company’s ET-Plus end terminals had changed the action…
A Hilton Head doctor was one of three whistleblowers who exposed health care fraud being committed by Health Diagnostic Laboratories (HDL) of Richmond, VA, and Singulex Inc., of Alameda, CA. Three cases were filed in South Carolina against the companies under the False Claims Act, which allows people with evidence…
The Mayo Clinic has agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle a federal lawsuit claiming it billed the government for lab tests that it never performed. The U.S. Department of Justice said the lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act, which allows “qui tam” suits by citizens…
Bert Louthian, a Columbia attorney who handles whistleblower cases, today expressed his dismay at a new survey that says employees who report misconduct are facing increased retaliation for doing so. “Besides the fact that these courageous people are suffering abuse for pointing out corruption and fraud, we are particularly discouraged…