Category: Whistleblowers/Qui Tam

Several former employees of HCR ManorCare, Inc. (“HCR”) brought False Claims Act (“FCA”) complaints against HCR, a nationwide nursing home company. The United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has decided to intervene in the case, which alleges that the company’s leadership forced employees to provide unnecessary and possibly harmful care to patients in order to […]

According to a recently unsealed whistleblower lawsuit, two health care providers in Indiana put the health of mothers and newborns at risk in a Medicaid fraud scheme that placed the care of low-income, pregnant mothers in the hands of lower-cost midwives rather than doctors. The suit alleges that the health care providers — IU Health […]

According to current figures from the U.S. Department of Justice, since 2009, legal claims brought under the federal False Claims Act have led to the recovery of more than $23.9 billion. About 63 percent of that — more than $15.2 billion — has been recovered from cases involving fraud against health care programs, including Medicaid […]

A former managing director for private equity firm TPG Capital has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against his ex-employer. According to the suit, rather than using investor fees for their intended purpose — to pay for the services of consultants and advisers — TPG regularly used the fees to pay its own employees. This practice allows […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has been investigating businesses for violations of Rule 21F-17, which provides whistleblowers with protections against retaliation by their employers. Specifically, the SEC is investigating companies “using confidentiality agreements to prevent employees from communicating with the SEC about potential securities law violations.”1 Recently, the SEC settled a case against Kellogg, […]

Under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower program, employees who provide valuable information about securities fraud can receive sizable award payouts. Generally, though, if a compliance staff member or a high-level employee — an executive, for instance — reports a securities violation after hearing about it through another employee or through the company’s compliance processes, […]

Since the mid-1980s, the federal False Claims Act has been the government’s primary tool for fighting fraud against government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. The law’s qui tam provisions allow whistleblowers to bring lawsuits against companies and individuals that defraud the government, and whistleblowers have collectively received billions of dollars in rewards for blowing the […]

Dozens of federal and state laws offer protections to whistleblowers in a variety of industries. The False Claims Act, the Dodd-Frank Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) are just a few of those laws that allow for whistleblowers to receive a significant portion of any money recovered by the Department […]

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that whistleblowers bringing a case under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) do not necessarily have to present specific examples of the fraud in order to successfully plead a complaint. The Court decided that a whistleblower can successfully plead a false claims complaint if […]

The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act gives protection from retaliatory firings by employers and anonymity to whistleblowers who give the government information regarding instances of possible financial fraud. In cases where the government finds a company liable for financial fraud, the whistleblower receives a portion of the fine that the company must pay to the government. […]