Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetOn January 5, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a two-year statute of limitations was the appropriate period for assessing the timeliness of an action brought by a private employee alleging retaliation by a former employer in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA). The plaintiff, Michael Riddle, allegefs [...]

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TweetOn January 18, 2012, a jury for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida found TD Bank liable for engaging in fraudulent activity and ordered the company to pay $67 million in damages to the victims of the Ponzi scheme. Texas firm Coquina Investments filed a lawsuit against TD Bank in May [...]

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TweetOn January 11, 2011 the Air Forces Times featured The Employment Law Group® law firm principal attorney Dave Scher in a story regarding recent whistle-blowing by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) physicians. The story has since been featured in other Gannet Government Media publications including the Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, and [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week ordered AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of Dallas- based Southwest Airlines Co., to reinstate a former pilot who was fired in 2007 after he filed numerous reports of mechanical malfunctions. OSHA found that AirTran violated the whistleblower provision of the Wendell H. Ford [...]

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TweetOn January 19, 2012 Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, announced that it had agreed to pay $158 million to settle a Medicaid fraud lawsuit in Texas which alleged that the company improperly marketed its antipsychotic drug Risperdal causing the state to overpay for the drug. The lawsuit alleges that the company [...]

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TweetLast week, the U.S. government filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reopen a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. that alleged the drug manufacturer paid kickbacks to physicians who prescribed its drug Genotropin. The case, U.S. ex rel. Peter Rost v. Pfizer Inc., began [...]

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TweetElmwood Place, Ohio Police Sergeant Gary Darty filed a lawsuit two weeks ago in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio against Chief William Peskin, who Darty claims retaliated against him after he disclosed to local officials that Peskin had engaged in police misconduct. Darty wrote a letter to the Elmwood Place [...]

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TweetOn January 11, 20101, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Prolerized New England Co. LLC, a recycling company in Everett, Massachusetts, for ten serious workplace safety violations and proposed that the company pay $70,000 in fines. OSHA investigated Prolerized’s Schnitzer Northeast facility in Everett, Massachusetts after an incident in September 2011 in which [...]

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TweetOn December 29, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that GE Healthcare Inc. agreed to pay thirty million dollars to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit  in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against Amersham Health Inc., a holding company of  GE Healthcare. The DOJ alleged that from 2000 [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Justice last week announced that it filed a complaint in a whistleblower lawsuit against AseraCare Hospice, a for-profit organization with 65 hospice providers in 19 states. The complaint alleges that AseraCare violated the False Claims Act when it knowingly enrolled in hospice care individuals who were not terminally ill with a [...]

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TweetThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued 13 citations to LaBolt Farmers Grain Company, Inc. for exposing workers to unsafe conditions.  OSHA fined Labolt $95,920 for the cited violations.  LaBolt, based in South Dakota, allegedly failed to neutralize an auger, which severely injured a worker’s leg during a moving bin sweep. As a [...]

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TweetIn Harding v. So. Cal Precision Aircraft, U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Russell D. Pulver held that 31-year military veteran Michael Harding had engaged in protected whistleblower activity when he reported his employer’s unsafe working conditions to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  ALJ Pulver further held that Harding’s employer violated Section 519 [...]

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TweetDave Scher, Principal of The Employment Law Group® law firm, was interviewed by the Air Force Times, an independent weekly newspaper for U.S. Air Force personnel, retirees, and their families, regarding recent whistle-blowing by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) physicians. Commenting on the case of a VA doctor who was fired after filing a [...]

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Tweet Morris Jones of Capital Insider interviewed The Employment Law Group® law firm attorney Adam Augustine Carter on the recent changes in whistleblower and employment law that will affect employees in 2012. The points Mr. Carter makes are that: There are almost 2 million home health aides and in-home care providers working in our country. Now with [...]

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TweetLast week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Virginia-based container shipper, Maersk Line Ltd., and its Denmark-based affiliate, Maersk Line, entered into a settlement agreement in which Maersk will pay the federal government nearly $32 million to resolve allegations that the companies submitted false claims involving cargo shipments to U.S. military personnel in [...]

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TweetLast month, Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System (“LAMPERS”) filed a securities class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY Mellon) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The lawsuit filed by LAMPERS, discussed in an article published by [...]

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Tweet On December 21, 2011 the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the Department of Labor ordered Union Pacific Railroad. Co. to rehire a former employee after an unlawful termination. The employee, who remains unidentified due to OSHA policy, filed a whistleblower complaint against Union Pacific after the company suspended then fired [...]

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