Whistleblower Insider Blog

DOJ Catch Of The Week -- King's Daughters Medical Center

[caption id="attachment_3703" align="alignright" width="300"] Source: King's Daughter Medical Center[/caption] By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "catch of the week" goes to King's Daughters Medical Center.  On Wednesday, this large hospital in northeast Kentucky agreed to pay $41 million to resolve government charges that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims...

GlaxoSmithKline under Investigation in the UK

By Marlene Koury GlaxoSmithKline ("GSK") revealed on Tuesday that the UK Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") opened a formal criminal investigation into its commercial practices. GSK issued a statement saying that it is "committed to operating its business to the highest ethical standards and will continue to cooperate fully with the SFO." Neither GSK nor the SFO provided any further details about the practices being...

Sixth Circuit Rules on Mandatory Arbitration of Whistleblower Retaliation Claims

By Gordon Schnell Mandatory arbitration clauses are all the rage these days with more and more companies insisting on these provisions in their dealings with customers and employees. It is no wonder why. Arbitrations are typically much less expensive, intrusive and protracted than litigating through the courts. Perhaps even more importantly, they can be used to bar class actions and discourage lawsuits altogether...

A Look at Edward Snowden’s Interview with NBC

By Jason Enzler Last night, NBC’s interview with Edward Snowden aired. From a factual standpoint, there was not much disclosed that had not already come out in previous news stories. Snowden has already answered questions like “why didn’t he blow the whistle internally before going to the press?” (he did), or “why did he flee to Russia with super-sensitive documents?” (he did not). But as NBC’s...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - May 27, 2014

May 27, 2014 By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Snowden coming home? -- Snowden’s lawyer says there are currently negotiations to bring the former NSA whistleblower back to the US and that he will return home if certain conditions are met, including at least a partial pardon from prosecution.  The Washington Times VA whistleblower says 2 vets killed themselves while waiting for treatment -- Margaret...

Whistleblower News from the Inside - May 23, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Senators propose the Stop Scams Act of 2014  --  Citing estimates that Medicare fraudsters are costing taxpayers $60-90B a year, a bi-partisan group of senators is proposing legislation that will make it easier for insurers and medical providers to share information that more quickly identifies scammers.  Sacramento Bee California counties sue pharmas over painkiller abuse --...

DOJ Catch of the Week -- Credit Suisse

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team This week's Department of Justice "catch of the week" goes to Credit Suisse. On Monday the Swiss banking giant pled guilty to criminal charges of conspiring to help thousands of US taxpayers evade taxes and agreed to pay fines and restitution amounting to $2.6 billion. See DOJ press release. It is the first big bank to plead guilty to illegal activity since Drexel Burnham...

Veteran Advocacy Groups Launch Whistleblower Website

By Marlene Koury The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) together launched VAOversight, a secure whistleblower website to report fraud, mismanagement and abuse in the Department of Veterans Affairs following allegations that a Phoenix VA hospital suffered from treatment delays, had hidden wait lists and caused the potentially preventable deaths of up to 40...

Supreme Court To Hear Whistleblower Case On Disclosing National Security Dangers

By Jason Ensler On Monday the Supreme Court granted a petition for certiorari to decide when a government whistleblower can go public with allegations of government wrongdoing.  At issue in the case, Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean, Case No. 13-894, is the disclosure to the press by former air marshal Robert MacLean that the Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) had cancelled air marshal...

Further Guidance On The Scope Of Whistleblower Retaliation Protections Under Sarbanes-Oxley

By C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team The recent Fourth Circuit decision in Feldman v. Law Enforcement Associates provides further guidance on the scope of the whistleblower retaliation protections provided under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.  This is the statute enacted in the wake of the Enron scandal to prevent and root out fraud in publicly traded companies.  It protects from retaliation employees of publicly...