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Whistleblower News From The Inside -- May 1, 2017

Posted  May 1, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Blood Testing Laboratory to Pay $6 Million to Settle Allegations of Kickbacks and Unnecessary Testing — Quest Diagnostics Inc. has agreed to pay $6 million to resolve a lawsuit by the United States alleging that Berkeley HeartLab Inc., of Alameda, California, violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to physicians and patients to induce the use of Berkeley for blood testing services and by charging for medically unnecessary tests. Quest, which is headquartered in Madison, New Jersey, acquired Berkeley in 2011, and ended the conduct that gave rise to the settlement. DOJ

67 Year Old Whistleblower in DeKalb Case “Just Did My Job” — Some people just can’t let stuff go. It sounds like it was that way for Deborah Cook, who at 67 may finally get some satisfaction – and a piece of a $4.6 million settlement – after making sure the feds held a DeKalb County company responsible for alleged wrongdoing. Cook told me she just couldn’t stomach what she believed was a company skirting accountability for its actions. Tucker-based Energy & Process Corporation, which supplies materials to the nuclear industry, was accused of failing to follow quality procedures and supplying defective steel rebar for a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear project. Cook helped uncover the alleged problems a decade ago, soon after she was hired as a procurement specialist for another company that was the prime contractor at the facility. E&P denied wrongdoing, as it still does today, even after agreeing to pay $4.6 million in a settlement with the federal government. Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ruling Quickly, Federal Judge Allows Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Duke — A federal judge in Greensboro has rejected Duke University’s attempts to get a whistleblower lawsuit thrown out of court that accuses it of a massive research fraud. The suit “has stated claims” that could expose Duke to damages, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles said in an order that sided with lab analyst Joseph Thomas in seeing the possibility that university medical researchers manipulated or falsified research findings to secure more federal grants for their work. Eagles, ruling less than a month after getting the case, ordered the two sides to begin working on a trial-preparation schedule, to include the completion of preliminary evidence-gathering. Durham Herald-Sun