Whistleblower

You know how to whistle, don’t you? Well, if you don’t, get ready to learn. That’s because the Dodd-Frank Reform Act contains a provision granting the Securities and Exchange Commission broad authority to reward whistleblowers. 

Sodexo is among the world’s largest food services companies and the world’s largest private food purchaser, with more than 313,000 employees serving 6,000 clients. Now, Sodexo has agreed to pay $20 million for overcharging 21 New York school districts and the SUNY system. 

Cochlear Americas, a Colorado-based cochlear implant manufacturer, has agreed to pay $880,000 to resolve allegations that it paid illegal remuneration to health care providers to induce purchases of cochlear implant systems. The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought by a whistleblower, Brenda March, in 2004.

The False Claims Act encourages individuals to blow the whistle on fraud and corruption. Indeed, those who do so are entitled to receive up to 30 percent of the amount recovered – plus attorney’s fees. In some ways, therefore, it’s a bit of a surprise that most whistleblowers only turn up in one case and then, win or lose, move on. Well, say hello to Dr. Joseph Piacentile.

EMC Corporation has agreed to pay the federal government $87.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the information technology company violated the False Claims Act and the federal Anti-Kickback Act. The government alleged that,

Federal law permits whistleblowers to bring suit under the False Claims Act on their own. The law also allows the U.S. government to intervene in such cases – and when it does so, it typically suggests that the government believes there is some merit in the suit. 

The Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act requires contractors doing business with federal government entities to submit annual reports to the Secretary of Labor providing information about the number of veterans employed by the contractor (the “VETS-100 reports”).

Since its enactment during the Civil War, the False Claims Act has authorized both the federal government, through the Attorney General, and private whistleblowers (formally known as “qui tam relators”) to recover from those who make false or fraudulent claims for payment to the United States. A provision bars FCA actions based on the public disclosure of allegations or transactions in certain specified sources. Yesterday, the U.S.

“Health Care Fraud” comes in this year as the sixth biggest Financial Fraud Law issue of the year. Why? Well, consider these items:

There’s a Web site about whistleblower/qui tam lawsuits, at http://www.whistleblower-qui-tam.com/pages/qui-tam-history.html, that explains the history of those actions (in the U.S., the False Claims Act was Lincoln’s idea during the Civil War) and that provides information and attorneys who can represent whistleblowers.