Whistleblower News From The Inside — September 22, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Healthcare company to pay $3 million for violating corporate integrity agreement—Kindred Healthcare is being penalized for violating a 2012 corporate integrity agreement stemming from an FCA settlement.  Kindred’s auditors discovered that the company didn’t implement billing policies required in that agreement; this is the largest such penalty issued to date. Modern Healthcare

Utah skincare company settles FCPA charges for $766 thousand—Nu Skin settled violations that arose from a $150 thousand payment to a charity of a Chinese Communist party official’s choice, so that the official would intervene in an on-going investigation. This is only the second time an FCPA  charge was brought solely on the basis of charitable contributions. FCPA Blog

Michigan “pill mill” doctor settles FCA case for $200 thousand—Dr. Hussein Awada was accused of distributing narcotics to patients that did not need them, as well as to patients who were deceased. Dr. Awada also prescribed pain killers to patients brought to him by a recruiter; the recruiter would then buy the pills from the patients and resell them as street drugs. Washington Post

New York optician settles FCA case for $24 thousand—Dr. John Renna allegedly billed Medicaid for glasses that Medicare should have paid for and for glasses that were never delivered. The case was brought under the New York FCA. Buffalo News

Political party asks Punjab government to set up whistleblower reward program—The PTI has demanded that the Punjab government (an Indian provincial government) draft a law that encourages whistleblowers to report corruption by awarding them 30% of the recovery. Daily Times

Former Wells Fargo employees claim they were firing related to internal reporting of fraud— Several former employees claim that they reported unethical practices to either an ethics hotline or to Wells Fargo HR and were dismissed shortly after. CNN