Whistleblower News from the Inside - December 12, 2014
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Virginia joins Guardrail case — Virginia joined a whistleblower lawsuit against Trinity Industries Inc. over an allegedly defective guardrail system, becoming the first state to say it will seek to claw back money spent on the company’s roadside safety hardware. Bloomberg
Foreign whistleblowers gaining traction – Lawyers say they are coming across a proliferation of foreign whistleblowers seeking to blow the whistle under Dodd-Frank, but the law is unclear as to whether these tipsters have the same anti-retaliation protections as U.S. whistleblowers. WSJ
Gov. Christie’s associates to be charged in bridge scandal? – Federal prosecutors investigating the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge last year are considering charges based on a rarely used provision of a fraud statute, under which they could argue that associates of Christie used the bridge for a purpose other than its intended one. NYT
ICAN sets up whistleblower fund — The Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria has established a Whistleblowers’ Protection Fund aiming to protect ICAN members and the public from any form of reprisals or victimization when an alarm is raised on financial impropriety by public or private establishments, individuals or groups within the country. Nigerian Tribune
Medicare overbilling probes run into political pressure – When investigators discovered that Riverside General Hospital had filed Medicare claims for patients who weren’t treated, they moved to block all payments to the facility, but then politics intervened when Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, contacted the federal official who oversees Medicare asking her to back down – and she did. WSJ
Whistleblower protections extended under the Assembly Labor Committee — Members of the Assembly Labor Committee this morning released 5-2-1 a bill that would extend protection for public workers who disclose employers of governmental mismanagement, waste, and abuse — continuing a wave of legislation discharged in the wake of last year’s bridge scandal. Politickr NJ