Whistleblower Group

WildLeaks – The Newest Source for Wildlife Whistleblowers

By Marlene Koury Wildlife crime is big business – and it’s getting bigger.  It is the fourth largest transnational crime in the world, after narcotics, counterfeiting, and human trafficking.  And it is worth at least $17 billion a year.  The World Wildlife Fund recently said that in 50 years of conservation work, it has never seen wildlife crime on the scale that it exists today. Wildlife crime includes...

Supreme Court Takes Broad View of Whistleblower Protection

By Jason Enzler A Supreme Court decision this week settled a brewing conflict among authorities on who can benefit from the anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX).  And the outcome is good for whistleblowers.   The Supreme Court ruled that employees of private contractors and subcontractors who provide services to public companies can be protected whistleblowers...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - March 4, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Supreme Court expands protections for SOX whistleblowers – the court ruled that, under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, private contractors, such as outside accountants, auditors and lawyers, cannot be fired or punished for exposing fraud. LA Times SEC files amicus brief in closely-watched Siemens whistleblower case --  the SEC asserts that whistleblowers who go through an internal...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - February 28, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Sprint loses bid to dismiss NY False Claims Act case – In a suit originally brought by a whistleblower, the New York attorney general’s case against Sprint for nearly $400 million alleging it deliberately failed to pay sales taxes will go forward.  Bloomberg Break-in at whistleblower organization – A recent break-in at the Project on Government Oversight (no sensitive...

Monthly Roundup - February 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Here is our look-back at the key whistleblower and fraud developments we have written about over the past month: Featured Posts and Commentary Petition to Change the Face of Whistleblowers Of the thirty synonyms Thesaurus.com and Merriam-Webster provide to describe whistleblower, the vast majority of them are deeply derogatory and paint the whistleblower as dishonest, disloyal...

Companies Warming to Internal Whistleblower Reporting Programs, But Not Doing Enough to Support Them

By Marlene Koury A recent report shows that internal whistleblower reporting programs are getting stronger.  Companies are continuing to invest in the development of these programs as a way to ferret out fraud and misconduct.  And more and more employees are stepping up and reporting misdeeds, providing higher quality tips than ever before.  But as concerns are being shared in record numbers, the report also...

Another Record-Breaking Year in the Government’s Campaign Against Health Care Fraud

By Jason Enzler The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services released their annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program report yesterday to much fanfare.  And justifiably so.  The report documented the breaking of several records in the government’s ongoing fight against health care fraud. According to the report, for every $1 the government spent on combating health care fraud over the...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - February 25, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team NYPD internal affairs chief calls whistleblower a rat – The allegation comes from a lawsuit filed by an NYPD whistleblower who claims he was retaliated against for reporting misconduct within the Department.  Daily News Internal whistleblower reporting programs are getting stronger – NAVEX Global’s 2014 Ethics and Compliance Hotline Benchmark Report shows that internal...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - February 21, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Senator Wyden calls for investigation into Hanford whistleblower firings – The call was prompted after two employees of Hanford Nuclear Reservation were fired for raising safety concerns about the construction of a $13B plant to treat the site's most dangerous radioactive wastes.  Seattle Post Intelligencer SEC pushes back on attempted narrowing of whistleblower protections...

“David keeps beating Goliath when truth is in the slingshot.” – Part Two of Our Interview with Tom Devine, Legal Director for the Government Accountability Project

Earlier this month, we brought you the first part of a two-part interview with Tom Devine, Legal Director for the Government Accountability Project.  In that post, we discussed whistleblowers and national security.  In this second part, we explore what it means to be a whistleblower in the 2010s and some pressing issues facing whistleblowers in the years ahead. Whistleblower Insider:  We've focused so far on the...