Whistleblower News From The Inside — June 7, 2016
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals to pay $67M to settle whistleblower charges — According to the whistleblower and the government, the pharmaceutical companies “made misleading representations to . . . health care providers about the effectiveness of Tarceva to treat certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer, when there was little evidence to show that Tarceva was effective to treat those patients . . . .” DOJ
Florida AG asked Trump for donation before nixing fraud — “Florida’s attorney general personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates. . . . After the check came in, Bondi’s office nixed suing Trump, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.” Chicago Tribune
Regulators fear $1B coal cleanup bill — “Regulators are wrangling with bankrupt coal companies to set aside enough money to clean up Appalachia’s polluted rivers and mountains so that taxpayers are not stuck with the $1 billion bill.” NYT
Oracle whistleblower suit raises questions over cloud accounting — “Former Oracle senior finance manager Svetlana Blackburn . . . alleges that her bosses instructed her to add millions of dollars of accruals for expected business ‘with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers.'” NBC
After 3 years, little to show for contractors’ new whistleblowing protections — “July 1 will mark exactly three years since stronger whistleblower protections went into place for employees of defense contractors, . . . but the number of complaints the IG has substantiated has remained surprisingly low.” Federal New Radio
Purple Heart whistleblower seeks vindication in 6-year ordeal — After Cristina Jackson helped expose to her employer, the Commerce Department, an Army veteran’s fraud in obtaining a Purple Heart and hundreds of thousands of dollars in government benefits, the agency repeatedly tried to punish Jackson for what it said were violations of the veteran’s privacy. Philadelphia Tribune