Whistleblower News From The Inside - March 11, 2015
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
North Carolina fines Duke Energy a record $25M over coal ash contamination — The Duke Energy power plant site has a pair of unlined dumps estimated to hold 2.6 million tons of coal ash which contains arsenic, mercury, lead and other toxic metals which state environmental officials found contaminated local groundwater. RT
Fish and Wildlife whistleblower raises serious questions about the agency — “What I’ve seen within the Service is a disturbing recent trend where decision-making (on species) is kept with the regional leadership [which] in my opinion . . . has a politically-driven outcome they want to see and they drive staff and resources to ensure they get it.” High Country News
CommerceWest Bank agrees to pay $4.9M to settle Bank Secrecy Act violations — According to DOJ, the bank “ignored a parade of red flags indicating that a third-party payment processor was defrauding hundreds of thousands of innocent victims.” DOJ
Whistleblower raises concerns about Sarasota County Area Transit bus security — In an email to county commissioners, one bus driver writes “what should be a safe and comfortable ride had become a crap shoot and transportation nightmare.” ABC
McNeil-PPC pleads guilty to manufacturing failures with children’s Tylenol and Motrin — The company with pay a criminal fine of $20M and forfeit $5M relating to metal specks found in the products coming from one of its manufacturing facilities. DOJ
US finds Afghanistan is misusing billions in US aid — The Pentagon Inspector General found that “billions of dollars in U.S. and international aid for Afghanistan’s security forces are at risk because the ministries that manage the money aren’t preventing waste and corruption.” Bloomberg
The piece on the politicization of Fish and Wildlife is sad.