Whistleblower News From The Inside — May 1, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Vermont False Claims Act to become law — The House voted yes to a Senate version of Vermont’s False Claims Act which mirrors the federal FCA and offers whistleblowers rewards for blowing the whistle on fraud.   VT Digger

Express Scripts unit to pay $45 million over Novartis kickback scheme –– A unit of pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Holding Co will pay $45 million to resolve U.S. claims it participated in a kickback scheme with Novartis AG to boost sales of a drug that led to improper government reimbursements.  Reuters

Florida hospitals settle Medicare fraud allegations — Nine hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida and a local ambulance company agreed to pay a total of $7.5 million to settle civil allegations that they defrauded Medicare with ambulance rides that were medically unnecessary. WSJ

SEC reviewing efforts by some companies to thwart whistleblower awards — The SEC is looking into whether some companies are trying to force employees to sign agreements to forgo receiving whistleblower awards from the government to be eligible for severance pay, saying any agreement which forces employees to get pre-approval to report misconduct to the SEC creates a “chilling” effect.  Reuters

CIA whistleblower calls on journalists to tell ‘full story’ of US torture — CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the treatment of al Qaeda suspects held in secret prisons, said it was now down to journalists to “tell the full story” about the intelligence agency’s torture program because politicians did not have the will.  Bureau of Investigative Journalism

L.A. Port police chief indicted in alleged fraud scheme — The chief of police at the nation’s busiest container port was indicted on federal corruption charges that accuse him of hiding his business links to a software developer he was helping win a contract at the port.  LA Times