Whistleblower News From The Inside -- November 3, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Kansas City for-profit college shuts down ahead of FCA trial – Heritage College, accused of falsifying student grade and attendance records to receive $32M in federal funding, shut down days after the Eighth Circuit ruled the trial can proceed. Kansas City Business Journal

SEC advises Ontario Securities Commission to enact whistleblower retaliation provisions – SEC head Mary Jo White, at a Toronto conference this week, advised Ontario Canada’s Securities Commission, the OSC, to adopt retaliation provisions; the OSC launched a whistleblower reward program last summer that lacks such provisions. Toronto Star

Texas doctor settles FCA case for $1.2M – Doctor Tariq Mahmood, who operated several rural Texas hospitals and was convicted of healthcare fraud and aggravated identity theft in 2014, will pay about $300K in damages and another $900K in penalties arising from 85 false claims related to his criminal conviction. USAO Eastern District of Texas

City of Fairfield, CA and Fairfield Housing Authority settle FCA suit for $680K – The city of Fairfield, California and the Fairfield Housing Authority paid $680K to settle FCA allegations they misused grants allocated to fund two federal housing program coordinator positions; a former Housing Authority employee who brought the case will receive $129K. USAO Eastern District of California

Reforming private prisons from the inside – Constantine Cannon attorneys argue that although efforts to combat poor conditions in private prisons have traditionally taken the form of prisoner civil rights lawsuits, the FCA and state-level equivalents may be attractive vehicles for change. Tennessean

San Antonio’s KLN steel back in bankruptcy amid FCA, antitrust suits – Texas furniture company KLN Steel, embroiled in a whistleblower’s suit alleging bid rigging and fraudulent inducement, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors for the second time in five years. San Antonio Express-News