Whistleblower Law Blog

Judge Anderson of the Eastern District of Virginia ordered Nelnet, Sallie Mae, and other defendants in a qui tam whistleblower action to explore potential resolution of Jon Oberg’s claim, which we blogged about here.   One of the defendants, Brazos Higher Education Service Corp., settled the action last week.  The plaintiff is represented by Wiley Rein [...]

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WTOP reports that Nebraska-based Nelnet, Sallie Mae, and several other student loan companies are exploring a potential resolution of a qui tam whistleblower lawsuit brought by TELG client Jon Oberg accusing them of defrauding the federal government.  Jon Oberg, a former Department of Education researcher, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the federal government under [...]

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The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that an employee is protected from retaliation under the retaliation provision of the False Claims Act when reporting any activity that reasonably could lead to a False Claims Act (FCA) suit even when the employee is completely unaware of the FCA.  Plaintiff Christopher Gobble was [...]

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The U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia rejecting Nelnet, Inc.’s contention that its settlements with the Department of Education (ED) bar Oberg’s qui tam action.  Dr. Jon H. Oberg, a former employee of the Department of Education, brought a qui tam seeking the return [...]

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Principal Jason Zuckerman of The Employment Law Group® law firm is quoted in an article in BNA’s Daily Labor Report titled “Attorneys Agree Financial Overhaul Bill Has Vigorous Whistleblower Protections” about the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.  The Dodd-Frank Act which we blogged about here, contains [...]

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The Employment Law Group® Law Firm principals Scott Oswald and Jason Zuckerman published an article in Law360 titled “Whistleblower Provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.”  The article discusses the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.  The article is available here. For more information about The Employment Law Group® [...]

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The Employment Law Group® law firm is quoted in the lead story in The National Law Journal titled “Financial Reform Includes New Whistleblower Program.”  The article reports on the whistleblower protection provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which we blogged about here.  The article states in part: However, employment and whistleblower [...]

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Recognizing that robust whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis, Congress included in the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill (H.R. 4173) numerous provisions designed to encourage whistleblowing and to provide robust protection from retaliation.  These provisions create monetary awards for whistleblowers who provide original information to the SEC or CFTC, strengthen the whistleblower [...]

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On June 23, 2010, the FBI’s Los Angeles office announced that Northrop Grumman paid $12.5 million to settle allegations that it knowingly submitted false claims to several government agencies.  Northrop Grumman allegedly supplied the government with untested commercial-grade electrical components which were used in military and space applications.  The components should have been tested to [...]

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On June 18, 2010, the Washington Business Journal wrote an article discussing the False Claims Act retaliation lawsuit filed by Robert Fagg against his former employer SmithGroup.  The article is titled “Fired SmithGroup engineer files whistle-blower suit.”  Robert, a former vice president in charge of quality-control reviews, raised numerous concerns about serious defects in mechanical [...]

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According to a Department of Justice press release dated June 4, 2010, St. Jude Medical Inc., a heart device manufacturer, Parma Community General Hospital, and Norton Healthcare have settled allegations of an illegal kickback scheme for $3.8 million.  According to the press release, the kickbacks caused false claims to be submitted to federal health care [...]

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On March 30, 2010, the Supreme Court issued an opinion widening the public disclosure bar to qui tam actions brought under the False Claims Act (FCA), holding that “the reference to ‘administrative’ reports, audits, and investigations” contained in the public disclosure bar of the FCA “encompasses disclosures made in state and local sources as well [...]

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On March 8, 2010, Judge Anderson issued an opinion broadly construing the scope of actionable retaliation under the False Claims Act (FCA), allowing whistleblower Ann Howard to proceed with her FCA retaliation claim in U.S. ex rel. Howard v. Urban Inv. Trust, Inc..  Howard was employed as an accountant for Urban, a property management company [...]

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On February 18, 2010, the Eleventh Circuit partially overruled a district court’s dismissal of a False Claims Act case.  In US ex rel. Sanchez v. Lymphatx, Inc., an employee brought a False Claims Act action against her former employer for fraudulent Medicare billing practices and retaliation.  She also alleges that she was fired after complaining [...]

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On October 28, 2009 the Health Care Fraud Enforcement Act of 2009 (S. 1959) was introduced to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  If passed, the bill would aid the government in prosecuting health care fraud and provide stiffer penalties for cases that involve a loss of over $1 million.  In addition to increasing the [...]

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On October 19, 2009, the Department of Justice announced that four pharmaceutical manufacturers, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, UDL Laboratories, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, and Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical settled claims brought against them under the False Claims Act for $124 million.  The case alleged that the companies misclassified “innovator” drugs as “non-innovator” drugs and underpaid quarterly rebates owed to state [...]

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Affirming a jury’s finding that Mohammed Kakeh, a Controller for the United Planning Organization (“UPO”) was terminated for his refusal to engage in fraudulent billing and for providing information to the Office of Inspector General, Judge Kessler rejected several arguments by UPO that would undermine the statutory whistleblower protections under which Kakeh brought his claim, [...]

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The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia today unsealed a lawsuit against a number of student loan companies, including Nelnet, Inc and Sallie Mae, filed on behalf of the United States by Dr. Jon H. Oberg. The action seeks the return of approximately $1 billion in “special allowance” payments wrongfully extracted [...]

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The Boeing Company has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve claims that the company overbilled the government from 2002 to 2005 for work done at a San Antonio Plant.  According to the suit, brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, Boeing inflated its estimates for the number of hours required [...]

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The state and city of New York have agreed to pay a total of $540 million to resolve allegations of Medicaid fraud.  The suit, originally brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, alleged that between 1990 and 2001 the state of New York knowingly submitted claims for reimbursement to the federal [...]

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The Seventh Circuit has held that the outcome of a False Claims Act retaliation claim does not preclude a plaintiff from filing a subsequent qui tam action.  In Lusby v. Rolls-Royce Corporation, Curtis Lusby filed a complaint against his former employer Rolls-Royce alleging that Rolls-Royce terminated him for raising concerns about the company’s misrepresentation of [...]

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In an article titled, “Financial Anti-Fraud Act Advances For Final Approval,” Law 360 reports about the recently enacted Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act (FERA).The article discusses the ways in which FERA will assist the government in combating fraud.  The article quotes The Employment Group® law firm, which observed that “strengthening the whistleblower statutes will give the [...]

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Yesterday Congress enacted the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act of 2009 (S.386) to curb fraud in the financial services industry and strengthen the False Claims Act (FCA), a statute that was originally enacted in 1863 to deter fraud against the government.  Under the qui tam provision of the FCA, a whistleblower can bring a lawsuit on [...]

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Last week, the House passed S.386 (“Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act”) to curb fraud in the financial services industry and to protect taxpayers’ dollars.  While the bill focuses primarily on potential fraud and misuse of economic stimulus funds, it also includes significant changes to the provisions of the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”).  In particular, the [...]

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On December 29, 2008, the Justice Department announced that Spartan Motors and its subsidiary, Spartan Chassis have agreed to pay the United States $1.7 Million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to an employee of Force Protection Inc.  In the complaint, the United States alleged that Spartan paid the Force Protection employee approximately $100,000 [...]

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