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Constantine Cannon’s Hackathon Challenge Generates Eleven Innovative Solutions to Protect COVID-19 Whistleblowers

Posted 05/29/20

The Constantine Cannon whistleblower team is delighted to reveal eleven innovative Hacks created in response to our Challenge to find ways to harness the power of whistleblowers to stem the tide of COVID-19-related frauds and misinformation. Constantine Cannon’s team of whistleblower attorneys submitted the Challenge to The Financial Times’ Global Legal Hackathon (GLH), a worldwide effort to draw on the...

Tagged in: CC Lawyers, COVID-19, FCA State, Government Programs Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, International Whistleblowers, Money Laundering,

COVID Frauds of the Week: More Fraud on the PPP

Posted 05/22/20

As we enter our third month of nation-wide shelter-in-place efforts, fraudsters continue to exploit government relief programs. For the second week in a row, the Eastern District of Texas DOJ is going after a purported small business owner for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Samuel Yates has been charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, and making false statements for allegedly submitting fraudulent loan...

Tagged in: Catch of the Week, COVID-19, Government Loan Programs, Importance of Whistleblowers, Whistleblower Eligibility,

Financial Times Global Legal Hackathon Targeting Pandemic Issues Raises Interest in Whistleblowers Worldwide

Posted 05/22/20

In April, international business and economics newspaper The Financial Times launched a Global Legal Hackathon with a call for “organisations and individuals in the legal sector to develop solutions to problems created by the coronavirus pandemic.” The hackathon aims to harness the collective capability, energy, and innovation of the world’s legal industry to develop multidisciplinary and technology-driven...

Tagged in: CC Lawyers, COVID-19, Importance of Whistleblowers,

Financial Pressures on U.S. Hospitals, Combined with New Funding, Increase Risk of Medicare and Medicaid Fraud

Posted 05/22/20

Multistory hospital building set amid trees

Hospitals are an institution we might have expected to be prepared for a healthcare crisis. It is their job, after all, to provide emergency and intensive healthcare. In fact, however, the COVID-19 crisis has put enormous pressures on hospitals. With such new pressures come new risks of healthcare fraud at hospitals.

The Financial Pressures on Hospitals in the COVID-19 Crisis

Against the backdrop of heroic...

Tagged in: COVID-19, FCA Federal, Government Programs Fraud, Healthcare Fraud, Hospital Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers,

COVID Frauds of the Week: Unproven Tests, Nonexistent Equipment, Price Gouging, and $10 Million in SBA Loans

Posted 05/15/20

Fraudsters continue to attempt to capitalize on anxiety and uncertainty during the pandemic by marketing unproven products and services for the prevention, treatment, or cure of COVID-19. This week, we highlight the massive FTC efforts to identify and shut down illegal activities via Warning Letters (around 100 issued to date); two new SEC actions; as well other government actions to quash sales of unproven or...

Tagged in: Catch of the Week, COVID-19, FCA Federal, Financial and Investment Fraud, Healthcare Fraud,

Telehealth Expansion is Here to Stay, We Must Be Wary of Fraud

Posted 05/15/20

Telemedicine, or the provision of medical services through virtual means, has been rapidly expanding for the past several years. In 2010, barely a third of hospitals were offering telehealth services; by 2017, over three-quarters of hospitals were doing so. Telemedicine has a lot of potential for good. It’s becoming increasingly accessible and affordable thanks to technological advancements. Innovations such...

Tagged in: COVID-19, Government Programs Fraud, Healthcare Fraud, Medicare,

Private Equity Ownership of Nursing Homes Might Have Made Everything Worse

Posted 05/15/20

person pocketing money in a business suit

Most nursing homes already had no room for error before COVID-19. Years of private equity ownership and competition with other elder-care services dealt a one-two punch to the cash-strapped facilities’ ability to react to the pandemic crisis, says The New York Times in a troubling analysis. In particular, private equity firms’ relentless quest for profits, miniscule margins, and regular cash-draining...

Tagged in: CC Lawyers, COVID-19, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Provider Fraud, SNF,

COVID Leaves Bags of Illicit Cash with Nowhere to Go

Posted 05/15/20

Few people may have given much thought to the actual mechanics of money laundering beyond rooting (or not) for Skyler and Walt’s carwash business. Many non-television criminals do, in fact, use otherwise legitimate small businesses to “launder” their money, mixing ill-gotten gains in with legitimate profits. The shutdown of the international economy has thus had a surprising consequence: illicit funds have...

Tagged in: COVID-19, Cryptocurrency, Money Laundering,

LET THE WHISTLES BLOW . . . .

Posted 05/14/20

OpEd by Gordon Schnell and Max Voldman Published In New York Daily News Add Dr. Rick Bright to the list of coronavirus whistleblowers silenced or sidelined for trying to push truth over politics as we battle this deadly scourge. He was just ousted from his post as director of the HHS agency working on a COVID-19 vaccine for what he claims was his refusal to support a “game-changing” supposed cure President...

Tagged in: CC Lawyers, COVID-19, Importance of Whistleblowers, Whistleblower Eligibility,

Let’s Talk about Nursing Homes – Who Will Raise the Red Flag Now That Routine Inspections Are Halted?

Posted 05/14/20

In March 2020, the federal government abruptly paused non-emergency inspections of some 15,300 nursing homes and other long-term healthcare facilities nationwide in order to focus on preparations to respond to the threat of COVID-19 pandemic. This triage means that an on-site survey will be authorized only in cases of “immediate jeopardy” of serious harm (e.g., abuse) or reported infection-control...

Tagged in: CC Lawyers, COVID-19, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, Provider Fraud, SNF,

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Constantine Cannon’s Hackathon Challenge Generates Eleven Innovative Solutions to Protect COVID-19 Whistleblowers

COVID Frauds of the Week: More Fraud on the PPP

Financial Times Global Legal Hackathon Targeting Pandemic Issues Raises Interest in Whistleblowers Worldwide

Financial Pressures on U.S. Hospitals, Combined with New Funding, Increase Risk of Medicare and Medicaid Fraud

The Financial Pressures on Hospitals in the COVID-19 Crisis

COVID Frauds of the Week: Unproven Tests, Nonexistent Equipment, Price Gouging, and $10 Million in SBA Loans

Telehealth Expansion is Here to Stay, We Must Be Wary of Fraud

Private Equity Ownership of Nursing Homes Might Have Made Everything Worse

COVID Leaves Bags of Illicit Cash with Nowhere to Go

LET THE WHISTLES BLOW . . . .

Let’s Talk about Nursing Homes – Who Will Raise the Red Flag Now That Routine Inspections Are Halted?

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