Have a Claim?

Click here for a confidential contact or call:

1-212-350-2774

Whistleblower News From The Inside — September 9, 2016

Posted  September 12, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

 Monsanto Whistle-Blower: $22 Million Richer, but Not Satisfied — The Monsanto whistleblower who recovered $22 million after bringing to light multiyear accounting violations feels he has earned only a hollow victory. The whistleblower, who remains anonymous to protect his future career prospects, feels that his goal of getting the issues at Monsanto fixed was not met and that the only result was fines and money changing hands. Both the whistleblower and his attorney were puzzled as to why the SEC only brought action against three mid-level employees and not others involved at higher levels in the company. The two also expressed dismay at the SEC declining to act against Deloitte, Monsanto’s auditor. “Bringing cases against auditors would put a stop to a good deal of accounting fraud” the attorney for the whistleblower stated.   NYT

OSHA Issues New Guidance Barring Restrictions on Whistleblowing — OSHA’s Directorate of Whistleblower Protection Programs issued new guidelines on provisions in settlement agreements that restrict whistleblowing. The policy states that “OSHA will not approve a ‘gag’ provision that prohibits, restricts, or otherwise discourages a complainant from participating in a protected activity.” The policy not only protects providing information to the government but also protects from indirect restrictions on conduct that could dissuade whistleblowing including broad confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses. OSHA’s policy guidance is consistent with the SEC’s recent enforcement actions against companies for using overly broad confidentiality provisions in severance agreements that deter employees from becoming whistleblowers.  National Law Review

L.A. Nursing Home, Two Physicians Pay Over $3.5 Million to Resolve Allegations They Participated in Illegal Patient-Transfer Scheme — A Los Angeles nursing home and two physicians who worked at the facility have paid $3,563,140 to resolve civil allegations that they participated in a scheme to improperly transfer patients recruited from the “Skid Row” district to a hospital for medically unnecessary services, and then transfer the patients from the hospital to the nursing home for medically unnecessary stays. For a span of three years, Westlake Convalescent Hospital allegedly paid kickbacks to a “care consortium” on Skid Row in exchange for patient referrals to Westlake. The patients were readmitted between two hospitals to extend Medicare covered stays.  “Patient-transfer schemes such as this victimize vulnerable members of our society as well as taxpayer-funded programs designed to aid them,” said United States Attorney Eileen Decker.   USAO Central District of California

Snowden Implicates Russia in US Security Hacks — Edward Snowden, the fugitive whistleblower living in Moscow, has rounded on his hosts, attacking the Kremlin’s human rights record and implicating Russia in two of the US government’s latest major security hacks. Snowden claims that the effort by hackers to auction off NSA computer code is more like a warning from the Russians than a whistleblower offering information. Snowden believes the NSA hack was a way for the Russians to retaliate against the claims of responsibility for the recent hack of the Democratic National Committee. Snowden also believes that Moscow had “gone very far, in ways that are completely unnecessary, costly and corrosive to individual and collective rights.”   Australian Financial Review

Florida Doctor Indicted for Role in $13.8 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme —The medical director of a clinic in Orlando, Florida, was charged in a superseding indictment filed today for his alleged participation in a $13.8 million health care fraud scheme involving claims for expensive prescription drugs and physical therapy. Miguel Burgos, M.D., of Gotha Florida was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to make false statements relating to health care matters. Yosbel Marimon, also charged with Burgos, faces one new count of health care fraud in connection with false claims submitted for physical therapy. The indictment alleges that during the scheme, Burgos and his co-conspirators billed Medicare approximately $13.8 million based on the false and fraudulent claims. USDOJ

Why This FBI Whistleblower Seconds Jill Stein’s Call for a New 9-11 Investigation — A post-9/11 FBI whistleblower supports a call from Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein to open a new investigation on the 9/11 attacks. The whistleblower, a former FBI agent and division legal counsel, disclosed the FBI’s failure to act on information provided by the Minneapolis field office that could have prevented the attacks.  The call for a new inquiry aims to further investigate the mistakes and warning signs of the attack missed or ignored by various intelligence agencies. The claim is that the initial 9/11 Commissions was limited and affected by partisan obstacles.   Huffington Post