Whistleblower News From The Inside — April 28, 2015
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
All-Star listing of government whistleblowers blast Obama prosecutions — “The landscape for whistleblowing ‘changed drastically’ on April 23 when Gen. David Patraeus received two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for divulging classified information, according to a panel of some of government’s most famous disclosers of secrets.” GovExec
The Medical Center of Central Georgia agrees to pay $20M to settle False Claims Act charges — The Georgia hospital is charged with billing Medicare for more expensive inpatient services that should have been billed as less costly outpatient or observation services. DOJ
Grassley speaks for greater whistleblower protections — The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman “gave a vigorous defense of whistleblower protections he has championed, including legislation that would have shielded Edward Snowden from criminal charges.” Quad-City Times
Whistleblower laws abroad remain weak and untested — “Corporate compliance officers in the US know just how extensive and widely enforced whistleblower protections are in their own backyard, but those same rights in many other parts of the world aren’t nearly as well enforced.” Compliance Week
US Marshall Service whistleblowers complain of retaliation — “Multiple whistleblowers in the US Marshals Service have informed Republican Senator Chuck Grassley’s office that leadership is allegedly using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to retaliate against them for seeking to report systemic abuses of power.” Firedoglake
Medtronic agrees to halt manufacture of pain drug pump — Through a consent decree with the FDA, the medical device maker agreed to stop selling its SynchroMed implantable drug pump which delivers pain medication to cancer patients, a step toward resolving allegations the company violated quality standards. Reuters