Catch of the Week: King Kong Tools

This week's Department of Justice (DOJ) Catch of the Week goes to King Kong Tools GmbH & Co KG.  On  Wednesday (November 29), the German-based supplier of recycling, forestry, construction, and agricultural equipment, along with its American subsidiary, agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle DOJ charges of violating the False Claims Act through customs fraud.  More specifically, the government alleged King Kong falsely labelled its products as "made in...

Survey Says . . . Whistleblowers Are Key to Global Compliance

A crucial component of any business is managing compliance risk.  An effective compliance program must include a clear and transparent path for whistleblowers to report risk while mitigating fears of retaliation.  These are the key take-aways in this year’s 2023 Global compliance risk benchmark survey by KPMG and White & Case.¹ Based on the opinions of 201 senior decision-makers across 34 countries, the survey offers insights into the strategies companies...

DOJ Announces $5.7 Billion in FCA Recoveries in Fiscal Year 2021, with Boost from Purdue Settlement Claim

DOJ has released its annual announcement of recoveries in civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government, and the total recoveries are eye-popping: $5.65 billion in settlements and judgments.  These recoveries make FY2021 the second largest year in False Claims Act history, and the largest since 2014. As in prior years, healthcare fraud dominated, with more than $5 billion of the total recoveries – 90% of the total. ...

Top Ten Non-Healthcare False Claims Act Recoveries of 2020

This year’s Top Ten Non-Healthcare False Claims Act Recoveries demonstrates the False Claims Act’s power to combat an array of corporate misconduct spanning diverse industries. In 2020, the United States recovered hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds obtained through claims rendered false by bribery and bid-rigging schemes, mortgage underwriting fraud, avoided import duties, fraudulent loan applications, and other garden-variety contracting fraud schemes like overbilling on government contracts or selling the...

Putting a Stop to Illegal Imports from Forced Uyghur Labor

The world has watched in horror as, starting in 2018, up to two million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been arrested, relocated, or otherwise forced into internment centers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.  The government of the People’s Republic of China has separated thousands of Uyghur children from parents, forced methods of control on women, and inflicted physical and psychological torture and abuse on detainees.  The...

A Milestone for Constantine Cannon’s Whistleblower Practice

Whistleblower practices have extremely long gestation periods.  When we started Constantine Cannon’s whistleblower practice eight years ago, we knew that strong whistleblower cases often take many years to come to fruition.  A burst of successful matters that recently have been acknowledged in the press marks the completion of our whistleblower practice’s startup phase. Last month, the widely read legal publication Law360 recognized Constantine Cannon as one of the Government Contracts...

San Francisco Whistleblower Law Firm

To speak with a San Francisco based whistleblower lawyer call 347-417-2192 or complete the encrypted form below. San Francisco Whistleblower Attorneys Constantine Cannon | San Francisco Whistleblower Law Firm 150 California Street, Suite 1600 San Francisco, CA 94111 T: 415.639.4001 F: 415.639.4002 [email protected] Get Directions Blow the Whistle Fraudulent activity is prohibited by law, but it’s especially troubling when a private company takes advantage of investors, customers, or taxpayers. For...

How Businesses Can Use Whistleblower Reward Laws to Stop Unfair Competition

Most anyone can be a whistleblower. The role is not limited to the corporate insider or company employee at the meeting, on the conference call or in receipt of the email or text message where the “smoking-gun” evidence of fraud or misconduct is disclosed. Whistleblowers can be any person, or an entity, with non-public information about fraudulent conduct giving rise to a whistleblower claim.  Often, businesses have such information about...

Blowing the Whistle on Tariff Dodgers

Faced with higher tariffs, some importers seek unlawful means to avoid those costs.  As tariff evasion schemes multiply and become more valuable, whistleblowers can play a critical role in exposing these schemes, and can receive a financial reward for doing so. In an article titled Tariff Dodgers Stand to Profit Off U.S.-China Trade Dispute, the New York Times described the schemes that companies importing goods to the United States are...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- January 30, 2018

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Whistleblower lawyers see a growth area in customs fraud – "Whistleblower lawyers see room for extra business on a new front: chasing customs-linked wrongdoing ranging from failing to label imported goods to shipping rhinoceros horn across the border." WSJ Saudi authorities net $106B in corruption settlements – "A wide-reaching anti-corruption campaign shrouded in secrecy and intrigue has netted more than $106 billion in financial settlements with 56...