Monthly Roundup - February 2014
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Here is our look-back at the key whistleblower and fraud developments we have written about over the past month:
Featured Posts and Commentary
Petition to Change the Face of Whistleblowers
Of the thirty synonyms Thesaurus.com and Merriam-Webster provide to describe whistleblower, the vast majority of them are deeply derogatory and paint the whistleblower as dishonest, disloyal and driven by unsavory motives. Betrayer, Fatmouth, Fink, Rat, Snitch and Troublemaker are just a few examples. Please help us change this inaccurate and shameful portrayal of whistleblowers by signing our petition on Change.org….
US Plunges in Press Freedom Rankings
Freedom of the press is an essential attribute of any real democracy. At least it is certainly supposed to be. But according to a just-released report by the international press rights group, Reporters Without Borders, the US is lagging far behind the rest of the free world when it comes to honoring this democratic mainstay. This comes from RWB’s 2014 World Press Freedom Index, the most recent edition of its annual survey of how much freedom journalists and news organizations enjoy around the world. Out of the 180 countries RWB ranked in this year’s index, the US came in at 46….
The Stubborn Persistence of Whistleblower Retaliation – Not Just a Problem for Whistleblowers
The good news is that the amount of misconduct occurring in the workplace is at an all-time low. So is the pressure on employees to engage in any kind of wrongdoing. The bad news is that the level of retaliation against workers who report the misbehavior that does occur remains alarmingly high. This comes out of the latest National Business Ethics Survey by the Ethics Resource Center….
Questions of the Week
- Has Snowden Helped the Perception of Whistleblowers? Roughly 70 percent of respondents said Yes.
- Should there be a ban on genetically modified organisms? The voting on this was split evenly down the middle.
DOJ Fraud Settlements
The DOJ settled False Claims Act and other fraud allegations with Diagnostics Imaging Group, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Bridgestone Corp., and JP Morgan Chase, among others for a combined recovery this month of roughly $1.3B. Most of these matters were initiated by whistleblowers under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. Click here.