Question of the Week

Question of the Week — Should the CEO Be Held Accountable?: Lessons from the Insys verdict.

In a shocking first, a federal jury has convicted an opioid-company CEO and other top executives of a criminal racketeering conspiracy. Insys founder and chairman John Kapoor and four other executives bribed doctors to overprescribe a highly addictive fentanyl painkiller, and ran a phony call-center to defraud insurance companies into paying for the expensive drug. Although the company itself had already paid over...

Question of the Week — Should we shut the "back door" to college admissions and end tax breaks for donations to colleges and universities?

The New York Times reported today that federal prosecutors are pursuing a new set of parents in the college admissions fraud scandal, sending ripples of fear through elite circles in Southern California and stirring speculation about which well-heeled executive or celebrity might be the next to be charged. There is little disagreement that the parents caught up in the bribery scandal did something wrong. Criminal,...

Question of the Week — Will we see you at the OffshoreAlert Conference?

Publisher OffshoreAlert, which bills itself as “the unofficial financial regulator” and specializes in reporting about offshore financial centers with an emphasis on fraud investigations, is hosting its annual North American conference on Financial Intelligence & Investigations on April 28-30th in Miami, Florida. For a second year, Constantine Cannon Partner Eric Havian will lead a panel with representatives...

Question of the Week — Have you listened to the Talking Feds podcast yet?

Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Lawyer, former United States Attorney, and Washington Post Columnist, Harry Litman has launched a fascinating – and timely – new podcast, Talking Feds. The weekly podcast is a roundtable discussion that features different former Department of Justice prosecutors that analyze newsworthy criminal cases, including Robert Mueller’s investigation. Past episodes have featured a...

Question of the Week — Should the Supreme Court Clarify Escobar?

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court declined to hear appeals in two False Claims Act (FCA) cases: U.S. ex rel. Berg v. Honeywell Int’l and Stephens Inst. v. U.S. ex rel. Rose. Each case was dismissed by a lower court based on the FCA’s materiality standard, with heavy citations to the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision Universal Health Servs. v. U.S. ex rel. Escobar. Berg and Rose are the fourth and fifth...

Question of the Week — Are device manufacturer's services valuable education or unlawful kickbacks?

Earlier this week, medical-device manufacturer Medtronic's Covidien business unit agreed to pay approximately $20 million to resolve kickback allegations related to the sale of its ClosureFast radiofrequency ablation catheters.  ClosureFAST catheters are used in procedures to treat venous-reflux disease, whose symptoms include varicose veins. The settlement resolves claims that Covidien improperly provided doctors...

Question of the Week — Should Big Pharma Be Publicly Shamed for Its Role in the Opioid Crisis?

Domenic Esposito, a sculptor from Massachusetts, has placed a 10-foot long sculpture of a burnt heroin spoon-the kind used by heroin addicts to melt heroin before injecting it-in front of the Rhode Island headquarters of Rhodes Pharmaceuticals. Today, Rhodes Pharmaceuticals is among the largest producers of generic opioids in the U.S. It is also a sister company of Purdue Pharma, which, along with other opioid makers,...

Question of the Week — Will the Next College Hoops Fraud Trial Bring Down High-Profile Coaches?

This week, Yahoo! reported that two high-profile coaches-Arizona’s Sean Miller and LSU’s Will Wade-will be subpoenaed in an April trial regarding the dark world of college basketball recruiting.  In September 2017, federal prosecutors out of the Southern District of New York arrested 10 individuals on fraud and corruption charges in connection with the recruitment of prominent college basketball players. Now it...

Question of the Week — Should members of the president’s administration have whistleblower protections?

On Tuesday, the House oversight committee opened an investigation into Michael Flynn’s involvement in a proposal to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the Committee published an interim staff report pointing to significant concerns raised by National Security Counsel whistleblowers of “the potential procedural and legal violations” arising from the proposed transfer. Trump...

Vote Now for the 2018 Whistleblower of the Year

Whistleblower Insider wants to hear from you on who should be honored as our 2018 Whistleblower of the Year. We are especially interested in those individuals who best encapsulate the qualities of the typical whistleblower — courage, strength, integrity, selflessness and a deep concern for public health and safety. You can choose among the candidates listed below, or identify your own candidate. And please add in...