Environmental Fraud
This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to fraud in environmental programs and policies. You may also be interested in the following pages:
December 10, 2015
New Jersey announced that Accutest Laboratories would pay the State $2 million to resolve allegations that it deviated from both federal and state requirements for the extraction and testing of certain compounds, thereby submitting false claims to the State and its agencies for payment. The State and its agencies – including the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) – had contracted with Accutest to perform a variety of environmental tests in its extraction laboratory. The allegations central to today’s settlement flow from a federal qui tam or “whistleblower” lawsuit filed two years prior by a former Accutest employee, Koroush Vaziri. The New Jersey Attorney General said that the settlement was the largest non-Medicaid-related False Claims Act settlement entered into by the State since New Jersey’s False Claims Act took effect in March 2008. NJNovember 3, 2015
In a consent judgment, Hess Corporation has agreed to pay $4.4 million over allegations that it illegally obtained reimbursements from a Massachusetts state fund for environmental cleanup projects at dozens of gasoline service stations throughout the state. The complaint alleged that Hess submitted reimbursement applications to the Massachusetts Underground Storage Tank Petroleum Product Cleanup Fund program (UST Fund) with false certifications in that they failed to disclose the companies’ insurance claims, and therefore were not in compliance with applicable regulations. MAWhistleblower Spotlight -- Hanford Whistleblower Dr. Walter Tamosaitis
Posted 08/13/15
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
This week's Whistleblower Spotlight features Hanford whistleblower Dr. Walter Tamosaitis, who blew the whistle on shaky clean up plans at Hanford nuclear site in Washington. Dr. Tamosaitis was designing a way to immobilize millions of gallons of toxic and radioactive liquid waste when he discovered the Energy Department’s plans to treat the waste were extremely unsafe. He...
Will Idaho Be the End of Ag-Gag?
Posted 08/6/15
By Molly Knobler and Gordon Schnell
Animal rights activists don’t get many legal wins, but this is a big one. On Tuesday in a 28-page, carefully reasoned opinion that pulled no punches, Chief Judge for the District of Idaho Lynn Winmill found Idaho’s “Ag-Gag” law unconstitutional under both the Free Speech and Equal Protection clauses. This was the law specifically aimed at criminalizing whistleblowers...
Congress to the USDA: “It’s GIPSA’s Time to Shine”
Posted 07/30/15
In a town of acronyms, who doesn’t love the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (“GIPSA”)? GIPSA is the agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) tasked with overseeing livestock, poultry, meat and other agricultural markets. In particular, the agency is responsible for promoting fair business practices within the meat production markets, but for years it has been...