Whistleblower Group

Whistleblower News from the Inside - September 9, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team DOJ sues for kickbacks and unnecessary spinal surgeries -- The DOJ files two False Claims Act complaints against Reliance Medical Systems for a kickback scheme in which physicians were paid to use Reliance spinal implants in the surgeries they performed, some of which were medically unnecessary.  DOJ DOJ investigating laboratories for possible kickback schemes -- The Wall Street...

DOJ Catch of the Week -- Smith & Nephew

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "catch of the week" goes to Smith & Nephew. On Wednesday, the London-based medical device maker agreed to pay $11.3 million to settle charges it sold the U.S. government orthopaedic products it claimed were US-made but actually came from Malaysia. The settlement ends a whistleblower lawsuit brought in 2008 under the qui tam provisions of the...

Whistleblower Spotlight -- MassMutual Whistleblower Bill Lloyd

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's "Whistleblower Spotlight" shines on Bill Lloyd, a former agent with the insurance company MassMutual Financial Group based in Springfield, Massachusetts. Last month, Lloyd revealed himself as the unnamed whistleblower to whom the SEC awarded $400,000 for helping the agency uncover an allegedly fraudulent investment scheme at the company. It is only the thirteenth...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - September 5, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team BP found to have acted with gross negligence in oil spill fiasco – A federal judge made the ruling despite the company’s expectation that it would be found merely negligent; it now faces upwards of $18 billion in fines.  Bloomberg Former Governor McDonnell found guilty – A Virginia jury found the former governor guilty of 11 counts of corruption, though his lawyers say he...

Eighth Circuit Clarifies Position on Pleading Fraud Under the False Claims Act

By Jason Enzler The Eighth Circuit has become the latest appellate court to join the fray over what is required of False Claims Act complaints.  Last Friday, in U.S. ex rel. Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Court held that a qui tam relator need not plead a representative sample of a false claim in order to survive a motion to dismiss the complaint.  In doing so, the Eighth Circuit sided with...

Case Tests Tension Between False Claims Act and First Amendment

By Marlene Koury The much claimed but never proven tension between the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and First Amendment is being tested again in United States v. Millenium Pharmaceuticals Inc., currently pending in the Eastern District of California.  The whistleblower, a former pharmaceutical sales representative, alleges in his complaint that Millennium Pharmaceuticals illegally promoted the off-label use of...

Barker Decision Extends Attorney-Client Privilege Waiver to False Claims Act Cases

The attorney-client privilege is perhaps the most critical component of the attorney-client relationship.  As the Supreme Court declared in its landmark Upjohn decision, the privilege exists "to encourage full and frank communication between attorneys and their clients and thereby promote broader public interests in the observation of law and administration of justice."  As most would agree, without the privilege...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - September 2, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team NY to go after Evans Bank for racial redlining -- The one-hundred year old Buffalo-based bank is being accused of "deliberately choking off mortgage lending to predominantly minority communities."  NYT More on the CDC vaccine whistleblower -- Opinion piece on the "apparent efforts by most media outlets to censor and downplay this story and try to discredit people reporting on...