Earlier this month, a federal judge in Philadelphia sentenced Aleksandr N. Zagorodny, 40, to 78 months in prison for a health care fraud scheme involving MedEx Ambulance, Inc. He was the former president of the business. His brother, Sergey Zagorodny, 36, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for his involvement in the health care […]
Recruiting Whistleblowers!
January 24th, 2012. President Obama addressed the nation in his State of the Union speech and told Americans that those responsible for the housing market crash would be held responsible. While few bankers have been sent to prison – and none from America’s “Too Big To Jail” banks – whistleblowers have helped the Justice Department […]
Anatomy of a False Claims Act Lawsuit
Recently we wrote about the record false claims act (whistleblower) award paid to pharmacist T. Mark Jones an his company Ven-A-Care. The sheer size of the awards – $597,000,000.00 is itself newsworthy and an inspiration to whistleblowers everywhere. Every time we write about a false claims act case, we get questions from readers. In this […]
Pharmacists Hit Whistleblower Lottery – Collects $597 Million!
The average Joe buys the occasional Powerball ticket hoping to win a few million bucks. T. Mark Jones, a pharmacist from Key West, decided to roll up his sleeves and become a whistleblower. His investigation of Big Pharma’s overbilling schemes saved taxpayers $3 billion dollars and earned $597,000,000.00 in whistleblower award money. Some say “crime […]
Whistleblower Opportunities – Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Jail Revisited
Every know and then we check back on our “friends,” America’s too big to fail banking behemoths. Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase. Usually when we write a new post its because Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been on the warpath and was able to extract more silence and stuttering from the […]
FIRREA – An Overlooked Whistleblower Tool?
I chuckled this morning when reading the paper. The big financial news this week is the Department of Justice suit against Bank of America for the sale of residential mortgage backed securities. The article claims the plaintiff’s bar “is abuzz” over the government’s use of a little known law called the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery […]
College Pays Millions In Whistleblower Suit
Northwestern University settled federal fraud charges yesterday following a suit filed by a whistleblower under the federal False Claims Act. University administrators agreed to repay the government $3 million although admitted no wrongdoing. False claims act cases against non-profits are still rare but are increasing in frequency. According to the complaint unsealed yesterday, Professor Charles […]
Whistleblower Law Used To Prosecute Section 8 Housing Fraud
Over 3 million households rely on HUD’s Section 8 rent subsidy program. The law was designed to insure that low income families have access to safe, decent and sanitary housing. Landlords receive a subsidy from the the government and agree to charge those eligible for the program a below market rental rate. Unfortunately, some landlords […]
MD Convicted Of Health Care Fraud – Shocking Scheme Revealed
by Brian Mahany Just two days ago we posted a story about health care fraud. 48 hours later and another sad story of patient abuse emerges; patient abuse for profit. The United States Attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman, announced a 68 year old cardiologist pleaded guilty to one of the largest health care frauds in […]
For Profit Colleges – Next Big Opportunity For Whistleblowers (False Claims Act)
by Brian Mahany The feature article in this month’s Milwaukee magazine was intriguing. There are up to 40 for profit colleges (sometimes called proprietary schools) in the Milwaukee area and many of them have abysmal track records. High costs and little prospect of a paying job at the end of 2 or 4 years of […]