Vote Here Now for the 2021 Whistleblower of the Year
Posted 12/21/21
THANK YOU FOR VOTING FOR THE 2021 WHISTLEBLOWER OF THE YEAR. POLLS ARE NOW CLOSED AND WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT REALITY WINNER IS OUR 2021 WINNER!
Whistleblower Insider wants to hear from you on who should be honored as our 2021 Whistleblower of the Year. As in past years, we are especially interested in those individuals who best encapsulate the qualities of the typical whistleblower — courage,...
Read the Essay Submitted by Spencer VanHoose in the Second Annual Law School Scholarship Contest
Posted 12/9/21
The Constantine Cannon whistleblower team is pleased to share with you the Fourth Place Winner of the firm's Second Annual Law School Whistleblower Essay Contest. That award goes to Spencer VanHoose, a first-year student at West Virginia University College of Law, Class of 2024.
Spencer received a Bachelor of Science (magna cum laude) from Shepherd University in West Virginia, with a major in Political Science...
The New ENABLERS Act May Be a Backdoor Way to Expand the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Program
Posted 10/14/21
In The Hill this week, I argue that the newly proposed ENABLERS Act is a lot more powerful than even its authors seem to realize. The proposed law would effectively expand the Bank Secrecy Act to apply the same reporting requirements currently imposed on banks to all sorts of actors who enable (get it?) money laundering: lawyers, investment advisers, accountants, art dealers, public relations firms, and the like. ...
Passage of “Silenced No More Act” Poised to Usher in New Era of Transparency, Where California Whistleblowers Will No Longer be Gagged by Overly Broad Non-Disclosure Agreements and Non-Disparagement Clauses and Can More Freely Report Corporate Fraud
Posted 09/24/21
On Monday, August 30th, the California Legislature took a giant leap forward in promoting transparency, corporate accountability, and integrity by passing Senate Bill 331, the “Silenced No More Act,” which is soon to be one of the country’s most advanced laws redressing the insidious role NDAs and other concealment and non-disparagement clauses have played in preventing whistleblowers from speaking up about...
Not Wanting to Be Left Behind, the UK Introduces Two Bills in Parliament Seeking to Improve UK’s Whistleblower Protections
Posted 07/2/21
The European Union is on the cusp of taking a quantum leap in the protection of whistleblowers. Whereas previously only 8 of the 27 member states had national laws protecting whistleblowers, the new EU Whistleblowing Directive (Directive 2019/1937) requires that all 27 member states transpose into national law sweeping whistleblower protections by the end of this year, creating a blanket of whistleblower protections...
Can the False Claims Act Protect Immigration Detainees from Forced Labor?
Posted 07/2/21
By William Greenlaw
A recent human rights case raises a novel question of False Claims Act applicability: when private immigration detention facilities defraud the government by forcing individuals into labor. The federal government has a vast regulatory and statutory scheme meant to stop federal contractors from using trafficked labor. But forced labor in detention facilities has historically been overlooked....
A New Day for Data Whistleblowers: DOJ Joins First False Claims Act Case Brought by Data Analysis Firm Whistleblower
Posted 06/17/21
In a potential watershed moment, data whistleblowing pioneer Integra Med Analytics secured their first government intervention in a False Claims Act case alleging Medicare billing fraud against a group of skilled nursing facilities in New York. Integra's action alleges that over the course of almost a decade, the fraud resulted in overcharges exceeding $129 million.
Auto-safety regulators finally take steps to stand up nation’s only safety-focused whistleblower program, but challenges lie ahead
Posted 06/16/21
Back in 2015, the public seethed over the auto industry’s historic failures. Takata’s air-bag scandal, Toyota’s unintended-acceleration deceptions, and General Motors’s deadly ignition-switch cover-up were in the headlines. Hundreds died and millions were exposed to grave dangers because of the industry’s propensity to bury known safety defects.
In 2015, Congress tried to turn the tide, passing the
Whistleblowers Without Borders: International Whistleblowers are Increasingly Important Contributors of Tips to the SEC Whistleblower Reward Program
Posted 06/11/21
On March 4, 2021, the SEC announced an award of over $5 million to joint foreign whistleblowers whose tip, providing significant information about misconduct abroad, caused the opening of an investigation that resulted in a successful SEC enforcement action.
According to Jane Norberg, former Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, “The whistleblowers’ information alerted the staff to misconduct...
Whistleblowing is crossing paths with antitrust enforcement. Expect the trend to accelerate.
In the past few years, whistleblowers have become increasingly instrumental in detecting and addressing corporate wrongdoing. Increased protections and financial incentives have encouraged whistleblowers to expose corruption and other wrongdoing, much of which would otherwise often go unnoticed.This phenomenon is also...