Episode 335 -- The New DOJ Whistleblower Program
#WorkforceWednesday: SEC Cracks Down on Private Companies for Violating Whistleblower Protections - Employment Law This Week®
6 Key Takeaways | Whistleblower Programs: How the U.S. Government Seeks to Create a Speak-Up Culture & Parts of the World Want One Too
Whistleblowers: Don't Drink the Government's Kool-Aid
#WorkforceWednesday: Whistleblower Regulations Increasing, #MeToo Bill Passes, Cyberfraud Risk Mitigation - Employment Law This Week®
The New BSA Whistleblower Law: What You Need to Know
FCPA Compliance Report-Episode 458-Karen Woody on the SEC year in FCPA Enforcement
Compliance into the Weeds: Episode 88- Proposed SEC Changes to Whistleblower Program
FCPA Compliance Report-Episode 379, Steve Durham on $83MM SEC Whistleblower Award
This Week in FCPA-Episode 77, the Home for the Holidays Edition
Day 15 of One Month to Better Compliance Through HR-Employment Separation Issues
Employment Law This Week: Record Whistleblower Award, Union Election Rules, Wellness Program Rewards, Mixed-Guard Units
On August 1, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued final guidance on its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (Program), offering financial incentives to qualifying individuals who report certain criminal...more
On August 1, 2024, the United States Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Criminal Division announced the details of its much-anticipated Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program. This program is designed to incentivize...more
One avenue for whistleblowers to take to report fraud against the government is to file a qui tam lawsuit under the federal False Claims Act. These lawsuits are complex because they have not two, but three parties to them –...more
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices announced several significant False Claims Act (FCA) settlements resolving qui tam whistleblower lawsuits. Under the FCA’s qui tam provisions, a...more
The False Claims Act (FCA) permits private individuals to bring lawsuits in the name of the United States—called qui tam—against those they believe have defrauded the federal government: 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b). The FCA thereby...more
On March 7, 2024, the Deputy Attorney General of the US Department of Justice (“DOJ” or “Department”) announced a pilot program to encourage whistleblowers to report evidence of high-priority white collar crimes with the...more
According to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, an estimated $100 billion is lost to Medicare fraud every single year in the U.S., with overtaxed law enforcement agencies relying heavily on whistleblowers to...more
2023 was another groundbreaking year for whistleblower litigation and bounty awards. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shattered records by issuing a $279 million award and continued to actively enforce the...more
When US President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law on November 15, 2021, $2 billion was allocated to strengthen the nation’s cyber defenses. With this heightened focus on cyber risk...more
A relator is a private person or entity who files a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit on behalf of the United States in exchange for receiving a portion any recovery from the defendant. The FCA was enacted in 1863 in response to...more
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia announced a renewed emphasis on health care fraud prosecutions in West Virginia as of January 19, 2022. It formed the Mountaineer Health Care...more
In 2006 Congress passed a qui tam whistleblower . It covered both tax frauds and underpayments, and also targeted illegal and undeclared offshore accounts secretly held by thousands of U.S. taxpayers. The law promised...more
When the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Act (“AML Act”) became law on January 1, 2021, some commentators praised it as a breakthrough. The law was modelled on the highly successful Dodd-Frank Act (“DFA”) and shared...more
Nonprofit Hospital System and Physician Practice Reach $10 Million Settlement for False Claims Act Allegations - Centra Health Inc., a nonprofit hospital system, and Blue Ridge Ear, Nose, Throat and Plastic Surgery, Inc.,...more
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . .” Charles Dickens was not thinking of the False Claims Act when he wrote “A Tale of Two Cities,” but the First Circuit Court of Appeals was when it decided United...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overturned its own precedent to hold the FCA’s first-to-file rule is “non-jurisdictional.” In so doing, the First Circuit flipped the district court’s award...more
Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that 2016 was its third highest recovery year in False Claims Act (FCA) history. According to the press release, “DOJ obtained more than $4.7 billion in settlements and...more
The SEC announced its second enforcement action in a week against a company using severance or confidentiality agreements requiring employees to waive whistleblower bounties or their right to bring a qui tam action....more
A recent settlement illustrates the substantial recovery available to whistle-blowers under the FCA’s qui tam provisions. Those provisions allow a qui tam plaintiff to receive typically between 15 percent and 25 percent of...more
As reported by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a December 2015 press release, the False Claims Act (FCA) remains the federal government’s primary means for combating fraud. In 2015, the DOJ recovered $3.583 billion in FCA...more
During his days as a data encounter manager at SCAN, Jim suspected the company had been double-billing Medicare and Medicaid for years. He expressed his concerns within SCAN. When he refused a job reassignment, he was fired....more
Are the Circuits A-Splitting? The Ninth Circuit Declines to Follow the Second Circuit's Insider Trading Decision in U.S. v. Newman - Why it matters: On July 6, 2015, the Ninth Circuit in U.S. v. Salman declined to...more
The Ninth Circuit last week held that pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 3730(d)(3) of the False Claims Act (“FCA”), a qui tam relator who is convicted of conduct giving rise to the fraud that is the subject of the FCA lawsuit must be...more
In what is becoming an annual refrain, 2014 marked another year of robust False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and mushrooming qui tam lawsuits by whistleblowers. Indeed, fiscal year 2014...more
On October 20, 2014 in a case brought by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), a federal jury handed down a $175 million verdict in favor of the plaintiff. While the outcome was newsworthy because of its size...more