This week’s news relating to whistleblowers, involving Texas A&M University settling for $750,000 to resolve a claim under the False Claims Act, a Wisconsin company’s $630,000 settlement to the Department of Justice for fraud and a New Hampshire clinic’s “drive-by” opioid visits defrauding Medicare.
Read MoreWe have written before about the sordid tale of Theranos and its promise to revolutionize the blood testing industry. As it turned out Theranos’ new blood test was unreliable—at best—and the company’s bold claims to investors and the general public were riddled with false and unsupported statements. With all of this mounting pressure, it is no surprise that Theranos now appears to be getting ready to dissolve.
Read MoreThis week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a series of new programs to fight fraud, waste, and abuse within the Medicaid program. This announcement follows an April report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found that improper Medicaid payments—a category that includes fraudulent claims—reached $37 billion last year.
Read MoreThe collective action lawsuit, filed by Rebekah Ricker, alleges that Johnny’s Pizza improperly denies its servers the federally mandated minimum wages required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Read MoreA corrupt Silicon Valley startup brought down by two of our favorite things: whistleblowers and investigative journalism. Last month Knopf released “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,” by Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou. It’s a riveting read detailing the rise and fall of Theranos Inc. and its purportedly charismatic but clearly troubled founder, Elizabeth Holmes.
Read MoreToday the United States Justice Department announced the $784,000 resolution of a qui tam lawsuit (i.e. a whistleblower lawsuit) with Livingston Regional Hospital, a Livingston, Tennessee hospital owned by LifePoint Health, Inc. The lawsuit was filed pursuant to the False Claims Act by former employees who had worked in the hospital’s geriatric psychiatric unit.
Read MoreWe’ve written before about the incredible case of Eric Conn, the aptly-named Kentucky lawyer at the heart of a $550 million scheme to defraud the Social Security system. Mr. Conn’s saga has finally come to a close, as the United States has announced a plea deal with Mr. Conn on these additional charges for skipping bail and retaliating against an informant, on top of the fraud charges to which he had already pled guilty.
Read MoreToday our partner and former U.S. Attorney, Jerry Martin, joined with 70 other former U.S. Attorneys (appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents) to urge the Attorney General to cease the unconscionable policy of separating children from parents after crossing the border.
Read More