Whistleblower News From The Inside -- May 2, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

UBS whistleblower Birkenfeld sues bank for libel — A former UBS Group AG banker who as a whistleblower helped U.S. authorities prosecute the Swiss bank for tax fraud, only to spend 2-1/2 years in prison for helping a billionaire client evade taxes, on Monday filed a $20 million libel lawsuit against his former employer. Bradley Birkenfeld, who in 2012 got a record $104 million award from an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower program, faulted UBS over statements published last November and this month by the New York Post and Bloomberg BNA Daily Tax Report. Birkenfeld said UBS acted with actual malice by referring to his “often unsubstantiated” recollections in a recent book and having been “convicted in the U.S. for, among other things, having lied to the U.S. authorities.”. Reuters

Major health systems pay millions in fraud settlements — Two health systems have reached settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding lawsuits over allegedly fraudulent grant funding and alleged violations of the False Claims Act. Partners Healthcare will pay $10 million over a grant funding lawsuit tied to its Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In this case, a stem cell research lab operated by Piero Anversa, MD, allegedly submitted falsified data to procure grants from the National Institutes of Health. Healthcare IT News