Whistleblower News From The Inside — December 3, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

DOJ recovers over $3.5 billion from FCA cases in 2015 — The Department of Justice obtained more than $3.5 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in fiscal year 2015.  This is the fourth year in a row that DOJ has exceeded $3.5 billion in cases under the False Claims Act, and brings total recoveries from January 2009 to the end of the fiscal year to $26.4 billion.  DOJ

The age of the whistleblower – Life is getting better for those who expose wrongdoing, but companies continue to fight back, often against their own interests.  Stifling whistleblowing harms business, since bad news comes out eventually and looks worse if bosses tried to suppress it.  Just as well, wrongdoing is less likely to occur in the first place if employees know that their bosses are more inclined to hug a whistleblower than to put him in a headlock.  The Economist

How a whistleblower brought down Chicago police chief – Laquan McDonald’s death seemed like another case of a justified police shooting until a whistleblower picked up the phone. One year later, the city is reeling.  Chicago’s Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has been kicked to the curb.  And now some Chicagoans are demanding that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez follow him out the door.  BBC News

Quebec’s whistleblower legislation called incomplete – With the province rocked by the corruption and collusion scandal of the last years, the government is making it easier for whistleblowers to come forward and expose ethical breaches and misuse of funds without fear of reprisals.  But while the bill makes it easier for whistleblowers in Quebec’s public sector to come forward and report wrongdoing, some say the bill does not go far enough because it does not protect private-sector whistleblowers.  CBC