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Importance of Whistleblowers

This archive displays posts addressing or illustrating the importance of whistleblowers. You may also be interested in the following pages:

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Lead-Tainted Applesauce Marketed for Children Bypasses Overstretched FDA Testing Protocols

Posted  03/1/24
Apple Sauce in Containers Next to Yellow Apple

The NY Times reports that hundreds of children were poisoned last year from cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches that were traced to the Ecuadorian company Negasmart, which supplies to Austrofood and distributes the product under the name Wanabana.  The FDA, working with Ecuadorean investigators, traced the contamination of the Sri Lankan imported cinnamon to a spice grinder in Ecuador that likely intentionally...

DOJ Releases False Claims Act Results for 2023

Posted  03/1/24
Department of Justice Seal Logo
The Department of Justice (DOJ) just released its False Claims Act results for 2023.  By all accounts, it was another big year for the government's primary fraud-fighting tool.  The top-line numbers are roughly $2.7 billion in total recoveries from 543 settlements and judgments, the highest number of settlements and judgments in a single year.  This brings the total tally of False Claims Act recoveries to more than...

Vatican Puts Out the Call for Whistleblowers

Posted  02/7/24
Vatican Building in Italy During Daytime
The Vatican wants to hear from whistleblowers.  This comes from the Vatican's recent release of a new Whistleblower Procedure, which outlines the Vatican's official enlistment of Church insiders to help keep the Holy House in order when it comes to financial fraud and corruption.  According to a post in Vatican News, the official news portal of the Vatican Holy See, the new procedure, which took effect last week...

Constantine Cannon Partner Gordon Schnell Published in Fortune on Why You Might Be the Next Big Whistleblower

Posted  01/3/24
Person Standing and their Shadow Displayed as Superhero
Constantine Cannon partner Gordon Schnell was published yesterday (January 2) in Fortune on why you might become the next big whistleblower.  He co-authored the piece with Amber Scorah, founder of Parallel Story, a nonprofit helping whistleblowers tell their stories. Schnell and Scorah have worked for years helping whistleblowers bring forward information about fraud and misconduct.  But not necessarily the kind...

Better Markets Heralds SEC Whistleblower Program as a Model To Follow

Posted  12/14/23
Better Markets -- a nonpartisan nonprofit promoting the public interest in financial reform and the economy -- just released (on December 7) a report on the SEC Whistleblower Program, touting it as a $6 billion success story.  In announcing its findings, Better Markets did not spare its high praise for the whistleblower program, highlighting "just how critical [it] has been as a law enforcement tool, allowing the SEC...

Why Cybersecurity Whistleblowers Should Be Treated as Friends, Not Foes

Posted  11/1/23
computer screen with HTML coding
A very insightful article in Security Week explains the rise of cybersecurity whistleblowers and why corporations would be wise to welcome them with open arms.  It may seem counterintuitive to embrace what many so readily dismiss as rabble-rousers or disgruntled employees getting in the way of business. But the higher truth, as the most experienced compliance professionals can attest, is that whistleblowers...

September 29, 2023

Registered investment adviser D. E. Shaw & Co. L.P. has agreed to pay $10 million to settle charges of violating the whistleblower protection rule of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  According to the SEC, between 2011 and 2019, the company required new employees to sign agreements prohibiting them from disclosing information to anyone outside the company without company authorization, a court order, or as required by law.  Between 2011 and 2023, the company also required about 400 departing employees to sign releases stating they had not filed complaints with any federal agency before they were able to receive benefits.  SEC

September 19, 2023

Commercial real estate firm CBRE, Inc., a subsidiary of CBRE Group, Inc., has agreed to pay $375,000 to settle charges of violating the SEC’s whistleblower protection rule between 2011 and 2022.  In order to receive separation pay, CBRE allegedly required over 800 of its departing employees to sign releases stating they had not filed complaints with any federal agency.  As part of its settlement with the SEC, CBRE has informed former employees who signed the release of their right to communicate with the government, as well as taken revised all of its releases to be in compliance with the whistleblower protection rule.  SEC

In Service of Justice – The Importance of Whistleblowers

Posted  08/30/23
Stack of Contract Files
Whistleblowing takes courage.  Whistleblower matters also require patience to file and wait, often several years, to see if the government will intervene and then pursue a matter.  There is rarely much transparency, so the whistleblower remains somewhat in the dark and can feel a lack of control.  Retaliation for speaking up in the workplace is a significant concern. Yet the interests of justice are served by those...

DOJ and FTC Draft Merger Guidelines Reaffirm the Critical Role of Whistleblowers in Antitrust Enforcement

Posted  08/7/23
Puzzle Piece Hovering Over Final Position
Whistleblowers provide crucial information, bring illegality to light, and right wrongs.  It is true when a nurse brings a False Claims Act case against a healthcare provider that defrauded the government by billing Medicare despite failing to provide the proper services to its patients.  And, as the DOJ and FTC reenforced in their recently released draft merger guidelines, it is just as true when a customer,...
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