June 2010. Jared Kellner, 15 years old, was looking forward to spending the day at Milwaukee’s Summerfest music festival. As he and a friend walked out of a county owned parking garage, a 27,000 pound slab of concrete fell without warning killing him and injuring his friend and friend’s mother. In an instant, his life […]
Supreme Court May Take Up False Claims Act Appeal
The United States Supreme Court is considering hearing an appeal of the dismissal of a False Claims Act case. Noel Nathan was a sales manager employed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He claimed his employer was committing Medicare fraud by overprescribing prescription antacids. A federal judge in Virginia dismissed his complaint saying that Nathan did not plead […]
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 […]
Heads on Beds – Assisted Living Facility Whistleblowers Post
[Post Updated through 2019] Whistleblowers play a critical role in the fight against rising healthcare costs. The biggest area of fraud – one that costs the government billions of dollars in fraud annually – is the Medicare program. Because Medicare is subsidized with tax dollars, healthcare providers that bill for unnecessary or poor quality services […]
Whistleblowers Key to Fighting Government Fraud
The federal government loses billions of dollars to fraud every year. Mortgage companies falsify documents in order to earn commissions on loans. When the borrower can’t pay, the FHA or Fannie Mae steps in – your tax dollars. Ditto for doctors that bill Medicare for unnecessary services or services not even performed. Same for vendors […]
Buy America Act – Chinese Steel – Whistleblower Post
During the height of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt and Congress passed a number of measures designed to spur the national economy. Part of Washington’s “New Deal” package was the Buy American Act; a law that required the federal government to prefer American made goods in its purchases. Later, the Buy American law was supplemented […]
Whistleblower Leads To Fed Probe Of Prominent Miami Developer
Many federal investigations begin with a complaint from a concerned employee or citizen; a whistleblower. From a story in today’s Miami Herald, it appears two whistleblowers are behind the federal investigation of Carlisle Development Group and its CEO, Matthew Greer. Until now, both the company and Greer had spotless reputations. Press reports say the feds […]
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 […]
State Tax Whistleblower Case Nets $5.5 Million
by Brian Mahany Virtually all of our whistleblower stories relate to the federal False Claims Act. President Lincoln proposed the law during the Civil War as a way of helping the government recover millions of dollars lost to fraud. Bad rations, soggy ammunition and lame mules were just some of the ways private vendors ripped […]
Feds Fine Mortgage Insurers – New Opportunity For Whistleblowers
by Brian Mahany and Anthony Dietz The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – CFPB for short – was formed less than 2 years ago but has proven itself to have some muscle. Although Congress failed to give the agency the power to toss bad bankers and fraudster in jail, it has proven itself quite adept at […]