A “Unique Status and Mission” Indeed: Judge Ruled Trump’s Firing of Federal Whistleblower Agency’s Leader was Unlawful
As we previously reported in February, President Donald Trump attempted to fire the Office of Special Counsel’s head of the federal whistleblower agency, Hampton Dellinger. He immediately sued Trump for unlawful removal, and on Saturday, March 1, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in Dellinger’s favor, granting him a temporary stay at his post. Judge Jackson held that the president’s removal of Special Counsel can occur “only for inefficiency, neglect...
Constantine Cannon Partner Gordon Schnell Featured in The Hill on How Trump May Be Clearing a Path for Whistleblowers
Last Thursday (February 27), The Hill published an OpEd piece by Constantine Cannon whistleblower lawyer Gordon Schnell on how President Trump may be clearing a path for whistleblowers. Schnell offered three reasons why an unintended consequence of President Trump’s efforts to dramatically cut federal agency staff and resources may be to create an opening for whistleblowers to step into the void. First, Schnell points to the strong bipartisan support that...
Payments News Update – February 28, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Durbin to Reintroduce Credit Card Competition Bill Payments Dive – February 25, 2025 Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin plans to reintroduce the Credit Card Competition Act bill sometime “soon,” according to a spokesperson for his office. It’s not clear whether the Democrat will strike an alliance again on the legislation with Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, but that would seem likely given Marshall’s strong support previously...
COVID-19 Con: Connecticut Company Pays $2M+ to Settle False Claims Act Allegations Related to PPP Loan
Although the pandemic has ended, government enforcement against fraudsters who took advantage of emergency government assistance programs continues. On February 25, in a case brought by a whistleblower, the government announced that the Waterbury, Connecticut company, MacDermid Incorporated paid $2,226,623.62 to settle False Claims Act allegations that its subsidiary, Coventya Inc., falsely certified its eligibility to receive a Paycheck Protection Program loan (PPP) during the pandemic. MacDermid is known for...
Not OK! Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform OKX Violated U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Laws and Will Pay $504M+ in Penalties
OKX, the largest international cryptocurrency exchange platform, hosts transactions totaling billions of dollars each day where users can place orders for spot trades in over three hundred cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, in addition to ordering derivative products tied to cryptocurrencies’ value. On February 24, the government announced that the Seychelles-based company, Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd, d/b/a “OKEx,” d/b/a “OKX,” that operated OKX since 2017, pleaded guilty to running...
A “Saad” Case of Medicare Fraud: Saad Healthcare Pays $3M to Settle False Claims Act Allegations
On February 21, the government announced that Saad Enterprises Inc. (DBA Saad Healthcare) will pay $3 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act from 2013-2020 by submitting false claims for the care of 21 Alabama-based Medicare ineligible hospice patients who were not terminally ill. Hospice is end-of-life palliative care for terminally ill patients who move away from traditional curative treatments. Medicare patients are deemed “terminally ill”...
$1B Medicare Scam: Kansas Resident Pleaded Guilty to Illegal Kickback Fraud Scheme
On February 20, the DOJ announced that Johnson County, Kansas resident Gregory Schreck (50) pleaded guilty to operating DMERx, a web-based platform that created phony doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of over $1 billion. He will receive a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Schreck admitted that he and his accomplices targeted 100,000+ Medicare beneficiaries to fork over their personal information and...
Grassley to Trump and DOJ: We Want Whistleblowers
For the past forty years, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been universally recognized as one of the strongest whistleblower champions in Congress. He is the architect of the modern-day False Claims Act -- which allows whistleblowers to sue fraudsters on behalf of the government -- spiriting through key amendments to increase the whistleblower incentives and protections under the statute. He has been instrumental in passing a slew of other whistleblower...
Health Net Federal Services, LLC and Centene Corporation Agree to Settle False Claims Act Violations Related to Cybersecurity, Paying Over $11M
On February 18, the government announced that the Rancho Cordova, California-based Health Net Federal Services Inc. (HNFS) and its parent company, St. Louis’s Centene Corporation, will pay $11,253,400 to resolve claims that HNFS falsely certified compliance with cybersecurity requirements in a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contract to administer the Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) TRICARE health benefits program for service members and their families. Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith for...
Payments News Update – February 21, 2025
Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: CFPB Agrees to Pause Rumored Workforce Layoffs, Data Purge Bloomberg Law – February 14, 2025 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees got at least a two-week reprieve from an expected culling of the workforce after their union and the agency agreed to let a federal judge rule on the merits of the planned staff cuts and other efforts to shutter the watchdog. The National Treasury Employees...
