Category: Whistleblower

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER On Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at the New York University School of Law, Attorney General Holder proposed an increase in rewards to Wall Street whistleblowers who report financial fraud. His proposal involved providing incentives for witness cooperation in the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) to […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER On August 12, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its latest amendments to the IRS whistleblower program. The goal of the changes is twofold: increase participation in the program, and improve returns to the United States Treasury. To that end, one of the very first changes was […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER On July 14, 2014, the United States House of Representatives voted to pass the All Circuit Review Extension Act. The bill extended the filing window under the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012 (“WPEA”). Now, thanks to Congress, federal employees who seek to blow the whistle have five […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER At age 59, Janet Keyzer decided to become a whistleblower against her employer, the University of California at Davis, and in return for this career ending decision, the whistleblower was awarded $730,000 from a jury verdict on Monday. A former administrative nurse, Keyzer was fired from the nation’s […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Whistleblowers brought two False Claims Act lawsuits for Medicare fraud against UnitedHealth Group, Inc. the first in 2011 and the second in 2014. On August 28, 2014, the Department of Justice joined the two complaints against UnitedHealth. In both lawsuits, whistleblowers alleged that UnitedHealth billed Medicare for hospice […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER In 2011, the corporate world faced a huge shock – the Securities and Exchange Commission was ordered to create a program by Congress to allow anonymous reporting of securities violations and protection for those who reported misconduct, also known as “whistleblowing.” Whistleblowers no longer had to fear employer […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Astonishingly, even before completing discovery, or trial, one of two federal fraud suits against Omnicare has returned an unprecedented settlement, a staggering $124 million. The two qui tam suits filed against Omnicare are: United States ex rel Gale v. Omnicare, Inc., and United States ex rel Silver v. […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER On January 28, 2013 Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, delivered correspondence to the Internal Revenue Service with suggestions on how to improve the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. The IRS admitted receiving numerous letters expressing sentiments that largely mirrored those raised by the Iowa senator. While […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Courts have lowered the level of proof required by employees who want to report a potential fraud or securities violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley act. The 2nd Circuit recently decided in the case of Nielsen v. AECOM Technology Corp that a new “reasonable person” standard would apply to Sarbanes-Oxley […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER A federal judge recently ruled that whistleblowers do not need to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to be protected from retaliation in the workplace. This ruling is welcome news to whistleblowers who fear coming forward to expose fraud. California whistleblower and securities attorneys are […]