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…
South Carolina is in the top 5 states for bicycle fatalities. (See our recent infographic for more facts and figures about bicycling in the Palmetto State:) One step we could take to increase safety for cyclists is enactment of a 3-foot passing law. Skeptics of the 3-foot laws say enforcement…
“60 Minutes” aired an expose about some Lumber Liquidators flooring products having illegal and dangerously high levels of formaldehyde. It’s important to note that only some products have been implicated as potentially harmful. They were manufactured in China, and lab tests found levels of formaldehyde that exceeded (in some cases…