Whistleblower News From The Inside -- October 14, 2016
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
Five firms fined $825K for school construction fraud — NYAG Eric T. Schneiderman announced settlement agreements with five Rochester-area companies that falsely claimed to meet state diversity requirements in order to win and maintain contracts on the $1.2 billion Rochester Schools Modernization Program. The settlement agreements were reached with Concord Electric Company; Michael A. Ferrauilo Plumbing & Heating, Inc.; Manning Squires Hennig Co., Inc.; Hewitt Young Electric, LLC; and Mark Cerrone, Inc. NYAG
Outstanding Wells Fargo complaints show capacity issues with OSHA’s whistleblower program – From fiscal year 2005 through 2015, less than two percent of all whistleblower complaints filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were won on the merits — the rest were either settled, dismissed or transferred to federal courts – as OSHA struggles with its crushing caseload and whistleblowers struggle to be heard. Reuters
Hedge fund firm and supervisor charged with failing to prevent insider trading — The SEC found that San Francisco-based Artis Capital Management failed to maintain adequate policies and procedures to prevent insider trading at the firm and, specifically, that a supervisor failed to respond appropriately to red flags that should have alerted the company to misconduct. Another employee of Artis and his source were criminally charged and have since received prison sentences. SEC
South Africa’s finance minister dismisses ‘frivolous’ fraud charge — South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan dismissed as “frivolous” fraud charges against him which have shaken financial markets, saying he would stay at his post and deliver an interim budget at the end of this month. The charges have raised suspicions of a political plot to oust Gordhan, who has allegedly defied friends and allies of President Jacob Zuma over the awarding of lucrative state contracts. Reuters
Jacob Zuma corruption report blocked in South Africa — A corruption investigation expected to contain damning allegations against South African President Jacob Zuma will not be published today, as planned. Thuli Mandonsela, who has vigorously pursued Mr Zuma in her seven years as anti-corruption tsar, said Mr. Zuma applied for a court order to ban the publication. BBC News
Ex-Vikings TE Stu Voigt gets 6 months in prison in fraud scheme — Former Minnesota Vikings tight end Stu Voigt has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for fraud after being convicted in a scam that prosecutors say bilked investors out of millions of dollars. A federal judge said Voigt betrayed the public’s trust when he was chairman of a Bloomington bank and approved a loan to his business partner, who already owed Voigt millions of dollars. ESPN