Whistleblower Group

Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal Woes Roll On

By Jason Enzler The hits keep coming for Johnson & Johnson.  On August 30, several state attorneys general announced that they have agreed to a $181 million settlement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a J & J subsidiary, regarding charges that the company was illegally promoting its antipsychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega.  Click here for a press release from New York.  The settlement, involving 36 states and the...

The IRS Whistleblower Office Gets Serious With Record Setting Award

By Gordon Schnell In a shot heard round the whistleblower world, the IRS has paid $104 million to former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld for blowing the whistle on the Swiss banking giant's scheme to help thousand of Americans cheat the IRS through secreting their assets in offshore accounts.  This is the scandal that led to the bank's payment of a $780 million fine and to the voluntary disclosure by more than...

To Report or Not Report; Conflicting Guidance From the Courts -- What is a Whistleblower to Do?

By Gordon Schnell and Marlene Koury (published in the American Banker) Under the recently implemented whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, whistleblowers who report violations of the securities laws are supposed to be protected from being fired.  These protections -- which can include reinstatement, double back pay and special damages -- are designed to serve as an incentive for whistleblowers to come...

The SEC Whistleblower Office is Open for Business

By Gordon Schnell and Marlene Koury With the payment of its first whistleblower reward last week, the SEC has declared loud and clear that its recently created Whistleblower Office is officially open for business.  Click here for SEC press release.   While relatively modest in amount -- only $50,000 for now -- what is particularly notable about the award is that it represented 30 percent of the total amount the...

The Government's New Public-Private Partnership in Tackling Healthcare Fraud – Seeking Prevention Over Punishment

By Marlene Koury The government has done a good job of late in recovering billions of dollars of fines from a host of companies big and small for committing various acts of healthcare fraud.  The recoveries so far for this year alone have been record-setting, on their way to crossing the $10 billion mark.  And this number is sure to grow even higher as the Obama Administration continues to ramp up its efforts to...

Taking Internal Whistleblowers More Seriously -- The DOJ's New Whistleblower Ombudsperson Position

By Gordon Schnell In a hopeful sign that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be taking internal whistleblowers more seriously, the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced last week the creation of a Whistleblower Ombudsperson position.  The new ombudsperson will be responsible for educating DOJ staff on the role and importance of internal whistleblowers in uncovering agency abuse and mismanagement...

SEC Continues its Crusade Against Foreign Bribery

By Gordon Schnell The reinvigorated efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to fight foreign bribery continue to pay off.  This week, the SEC announced that the drug giant, Pfizer, has agreed to pay $60 million to settle criminal and civil charges that its subsidiaries bribed foreign officials in Europe and Asia in order to win business there.  Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), it...