Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetThe Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this month released its “Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program,” which announced that in fiscal year 2012 the agency received a total of 3,001 tips from all fifty states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and from forty-nine foreign countries. Under the new program, the first reward was issued on [...]

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TweetOn November 20, 2012, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels announced that Beth Slavet has been appointed as the new direct or OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Slavet has over thirty years of whistleblower enforcement experience. Prior to her appointment as director of OSHA’s whistleblower program, Slavet [...]

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TweetOn November 13, 2012, the Senate voted in favor of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), S. 743/H.R. 3289, a piece of legislation that would provide federal whistleblowers with stronger protection from retaliation. Overall, this bill will close many gaps in the existing law, providing additional protection to those who expose fraud, waste, abuse, and [...]

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TweetDave Sanders, former assistant maintenance manager for the Energy Northwest Columbia Generating Station, filed suit on October 25, 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington under the whistleblower provision of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1978 (ERA).  Sanders alleges that Energy Northwest retaliated against him for questioning the nuclear power [...]

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TweetThe Department of Justice has announced that Freeman Health System, a healthcare provider and hospital system located in Joplin, Missouri, will pay $9,316,139 to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and Stark Law for improperly compensating physicians for referrals. The lawsuit alleged that Freeman provided seventy physicians employed at clinics operated by [...]

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TweetFollowing an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) the Northern Illinois Flight Center has been ordered to reinstate an Illinois pilot and pay him over $500,000 in back pay, benefits and damages. OSHA found that the flight center violated the whistleblower protection provision of the Wendell H. [...]

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TweetThe Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that the United States has filed a False Claims Act lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Triple Canopy Inc., a Reston, Virginia-based government contractor. The case was initially filed in 2011 by a former employee of Triple Canopy under the qui [...]

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TweetThe Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has announced that it successfully completed its fourth mediation in the month of October. OSC mediated between Border Patrol agent Christian Sanchez and the U.S. Border Patrol’s Port Angeles Station in the state of Washington after Sanchez filed a Whistleblower Protection Act complaint. Sanchez alleges that the U.S. Border [...]

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TweetNew York’s Westchester Medical Center has agreed to pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Richard Anderson, the administrative head of Westchester’s behavioral health center.  Anderson filed his qui tam suit alleging Medicaid fraud in July 2011. From August 2001 to June 2010, the mental health center at Westchester Medical Center allegedly billed [...]

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TweetRxAmerica, a subsidiary of CVS Caremark, entered a civil settlement agreement with the federal government and agreed to pay $5.25 million to resolve allegations that the company misrepresented prescription drug costs to seniors and submitted false claims to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). According to the lawsuit filed in 2009 by Max [...]

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TweetLast month President Obama issued a landmark Presidential Policy Directive (PPD-19), which will finally provide members of the national security and intelligence community with protection against retaliation when they blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse. The Directive will protect employees of the intelligence community by prohibiting retaliatory actions affecting employees’ security clearances and [...]

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