Whistleblower Group

Whistleblower News From The Inside

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Citizenfour filmmaker suing over alleged harassment -- Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. government to find out why she has been searched, questioned and subject to enhanced security screenings over the course of six years at U.S. and overseas airports.  Time Amphastar whistleblower lawsuit against Sanofi...

DOJ Enforcement Spotlight -- Cancer Doctor Farid Fata

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Last Friday, the Department of Justice secured a 45-year prison sentence against the now infamous Detroit-area doctor, Farid Fata.  He was also ordered to forfeit $17.6 million of illegal reimbursements he obtained from Medicare and private insurance companies.  This stems from his guilty plea in September 2014 to violating the False Claims Act with a health care fraud scheme...

In Their Own Words -- Fata

-- “I MISUSED MY TALENTS, YES, AND PERMITTED THIS SIN TO ENTER ME BECAUSE OF POWER AND GREED."

Farid Fata, the Detroit area cancer doctor addressing the court before being sentence to 45 years in prison for mistreating over 550 people, including making false diagnoses and administering chemotherapy to patients who did not have cancer.

Whistleblower News From The Inside — July 13, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Prosecutors go after fraud at Veterans Affairs – One case involves a VA employee taking more than $1.2 million in kickbacks; another involves an employee who stole gravestones from a cemetery to floor his garage.  Washington Post Time to modernize the nursing home system – Officials intend to make sweeping changes to the rules that nursing homes must follow in order to...

IRS Releases Another Report on Whistleblower Program

By Jason Enzler The Internal Revenue Service just released its annual report to Congress regarding its whistleblower program – and it reveals a program that at first blush is just as disappointing as it was last year.  In fact, a comparison of the two years suggests that the IRS whistleblower program may even have become less effective than it was previously. For example, in FY 2013, the IRS received over...

In Their Own Words -- Tillipman

-- “Let’s be clear about one thing: Chuck Blazer is not a whistleblower. And more importantly, the media’s haphazard use of this term to describe Blazer is a disservice to the brave individuals that may legitimately be deemed ‘whistleblowers.’"

-- Jessica Tillipman, Senior Editor of the FCPA Blog and Assistant Dean at The George Washington University Law School.  Click here for more.  

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- July 10, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Stop calling Chuck Blazer a whistleblower -- Chuck Blazer didn’t voluntarily approach the government or media about the corrupt activities of his former colleagues – he only turned his back on FIFA when he had no other options, which makes him a cooperating witness, not a whistleblower.  FCPA Blog Secret plan to kill Wisconsin whistleblower law? -- Apparently Wisconsin...

Ninth Circuit Victory For Whistleblowers In Narrowing "Public Disclosure" And "First-To-File" Bars To Bringing Qui Tam Actions

In a major victory for whistleblowers, the Ninth Circuit in United States ex rel. Hartpence v. Kinetic Concepts, Inc. narrowed the reach of two significant bars to bringing qui tam lawsuits under the False Claims Act.  Under the so-called "public disclosure" bar, the Ninth Circuit reversed its own precedent and ruled the "original source" exception to the bar does not require the whistleblower to have played a role...

DOJ Catch of The Week -- AstraZeneca And Cephalon

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "catch of the week" goes to AstraZeneca LP and Cephalon Inc.  On Monday, each of these pharmaceutical companies agreed to settle charges they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying rebates they owed under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program.  AstraZeneca agreed to pay $46.5 million with roughly $26.7 million going to the United...

Have We Reached the Final Round In the Government's Tuomey Kickback Case?

The United States won another round in its now almost eight year battle to hold South Carolina-based Tuomey Healthcare System liable for paying doctors illegal kickbacks.  The litigation has been long and procedurally complex, but at bottom, the Government has alleged, and the jury has found, that Tuomey gave a group of doctors unreasonably lucrative employment arrangements to get them to send their patients to...