Top Ten State Fraud Recoveries of 2018

While 2018 saw many important federal settlements and whistleblower awards across a wide range of industries, state governments were equally busy rooting out fraud. In fact, in the last few years, recognizing the ever-growing need to hold businesses accountable for defrauding taxpayers, several states have passed their own false claims statutes modeled after the federal false claims act. These laws operate in a similar manner, allowing whistleblowers to bring qui...

December 28, 2018

Wells Fargo reached a settlement valued at $575 million with the 50 states and District of Columbia to resolve state investigations into Wells Fargo's practice of opening accounts for customers without authorization.  The settlement will be divided among the states.  See, e.g., CA; FL; GA; IL; NJ; PA.

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following. Supreme Court Sides With American Express on Merchant Fees.  American Express did not violate the antitrust laws by insisting in its contracts with merchants that they do nothing to encourage patrons to use other cards, the Supreme Court ruled last week. The decision has implications not only for what one brief...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- April 20, 2018

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Wells Fargo Fined $1 Billion Over Consumer-Business Missteps – Wells Fargo & Co. will pay $1 billion to settle U.S. probes into mistreatment of consumers, the largest sanction of a U.S. bank under President Donald Trump, as the firm tries to resolve a year and a half of scandals across its operations. Bloomberg Lance Armstrong Agrees to Pay $5 Million to Settle False Claims...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- April 13, 2018

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team SEC Awards Whistleblower More Than $2.1 Million – The SEC announced a whistleblower award of more than $2.1 million to a former company insider whose information led to multiple successful enforcement actions. The whistleblower’s information strongly supported the findings in the underlying actions and the whistleblower provided ongoing assistance to the staff during the investigation. “The SEC has issued nearly $90 million in whistleblower awards...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- March 3, 2018

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Birmingham whistleblower awarded $14.7 million in organ center probe – A Birmingham whistleblower who uncovered and reported an illegal kickback and false billing scheme that defrauded the Alabama Organ Center and taxpayers was awarded a judgment of $14.7 million after winning a jury trial last month. AL Internal Auditor Charged In $2B India Bank Fraud Scandal – An internal auditor at a Mumbai branch of Punjab National...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- November 7, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team More Wells Fargo whistleblowers allege retaliation -- The allegations relate to "when the bank forced thousands of customers into car insurance they didn't need and when it wrongly charged homebuyers to lock in mortgage rates." CNN For Hollywood, It’s Mueller Time -- "Studios and networks need to start actively rooting out sexual harassment and misogyny in the TV and movie industry. Waiting for a...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- September 8, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Ex-Amazon analyst pleads guilty to fraud charge -- A former financial analyst at Amazon has pleaded guilty to an insider-trading charge, admitting in court he tipped off a college friend to information about the company’s forthcoming earnings report in spring 2015. Brett D. Kennedy of Blaine resigned from Amazon in May. Prosecutors said that his former fraternity brother at the University of Washington, Maziar...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- September 5, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Wells Fargo now accused of unfair home-mortgage rate hikes -- "The scandal-plagued bank’s Beverly Hills, Calif. branch routinely talked clients into paying higher interest rates in order to avoid fees for delays in processing mortgage-refinancing deals, a whistleblower told The Post." NY Post What I saw when I went undercover -- "Callum Tulley was so shocked by the chaos, violence and abuse he saw...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- August 15, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team How the feds failed two Wells Fargo whistleblowers -- "The mishandling of the two cases, detailed in documents and interviews with former OSHA officials, raises questions about the agency’s treatment of whistleblowers throughout the financial services industry." American Banker Trump's business of corruption -- "So many partners of the Trump Organization have been fined, sued, or criminally investigated for financial crimes that it is...