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A Few MahanyLaw Current Investigations

Do You Have Information that can Help any of the Investigations Below?

The MahanyLaw whistleblower team is seeking information from whistleblowers on the active investigations listed below.

Welcome to our active whistleblower investigations page. To date, the whistleblower lawyers at MahanyLaw have helped collect over $100 million in whistleblower awards for our clients. Our success comes from your tips, leads and cases. We want to help whistleblowers stop greed, fraud and corruption. Of course, we also want to help our whistleblower clients collect the maximum awards possible and protect them from retaliation.

This page contains a summary of some of the many cases we are investigating. It is updated constantly and indexed by company name, industry and/or popular search term. For example, if we are investigating Dr. John Doe for accepting kickbacks from lab companies, we may list him on this page under “Doe, John” or “kickbacks” or the “Anti-Kickback Statute”.

Don’t see what you are searching for? Don’t worry. Most of the cases we bring are not found on our investigations page. Because Qui Tam cases are filed under seal and secret, by law we can’t list our pending cases. We also often don’t list active investigations for fear of tipping off the wrongdoers. Rather, we use this page when seeking general information and often when we get an anonymous or third hand tips that doesn’t qualify for an award.

Remember that criminals and fraudsters are everywhere. The federal government believes they cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars every year. Their actions often endanger lives as well. Simply because you don’t see a person, company or topic here doesn’t mean we are not interested or can’t help.

Even if you don’t have enough information or facts to bring a case, with your permission we can post a plea for information on our investigations page and see if we can get the needed information from another would-be whistleblower or cooperative witness. We never post information you provide without your permission and as you will see from this page, never identify the source of our tips and leads. Even if you never hire us, the information you provide is protected by the attorney – client privilege and always kept confidential.

Under federal law, awards can be as high as 30% of whatever we or the government collects from the wrongdoers. 29 states and the District of Columbia have their own whistleblower award laws that in limited cases can pay even more. The SEC, IRS, Coast Guard and other agencies have award programs too.

Even if you are not sure the information you have is valuable, call us. Don’t go through life wondering if the information you have might have saved a life or paid out a million dollar award. The calls are confidential and without any obligation. We absolutely love what we do and enjoy talking to would be whistleblowers. Have questions about remaining anonymous or whistleblower retaliation? We can help answer those questions too.

For more information, click, call or write to us today. We can be reached in the office at or use our online submission form here. **

**Before you call, click or write, please don’t use your work email or telephone. Privacy begins with you.

List of Active Investigations (see below for detailed information)

 

CHIROPRACTIC SERVICES FRAUD – Medicare / Medicaid

According to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare paid out in 2012 and 2013 approximately $1.4 billion for chiropractic services. Based on prior 2006 audit, the government decided to revisit chiropractic care to see if these services were being properly billed.

The 2006 review estimated that about 38% of chiropractic services paid for Medicare were improper. That means for every $10 in tax money paid to chiropractors, almost half of that money was waste or fraud.

Did things improve over the last 10 years? They got worse! A random audit in August 2016 by the Inspector General of a Michigan chiropractic clinic found that 92% of their services were improperly billed! In one case, a 72-year-old man had 167 office visits in a short period of time and with no improvement. Medicare rules say that you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over if the is the patient isn’t responding to treatment.

This audit follows another recent random audit in Arizona with similar results.

Medicare Part B covers, among other services, chiropractic services provided by a qualified chiropractor. Medicare requires that these services be reasonable and necessary for the treatment of a beneficiary’s illness or injury. While chiropractic care can be a safer and less costly alternative to surgery, chiropractors can’t fix everything and must show medical necessity. When that isn’t done, there is the potential for a False Claims Act whistleblower case.

People working in a chiropractor’s office with evidence that doctors are performing medically unnecessary treatments, intentionally overbilling, upcoding or even billing but not performing any services whatsoever may be entitled to a substantial award. If you have evidence of billing or other fraud involving Medicare or Medicaid, we may be able to help you stop the fraud and collect an award. Our contact information is found throughout this website.

 

CYBERSECURITY | CYBERHACKING

Cybersecurity, cybercrime and cyberhacking have become everyday words in our vocabulary. Almost everyone in the U.S. has had their FaceBook page, email or bank account hacked or been the victim of identity theft. The FBI says it is one of the most serious threats to our nation.

It isn’t just individuals who are being targeted. Banks, defense contractors, corporations and even hospitals are being targeted. As the risk of cybercrime grows, many government agencies are beefing up their cyber security efforts and requiring businesses to do so as well. When affected businesses fail to implement data protection protocols or fail to promptly report hacking, whistleblower opportunities abound.

For example, banks are now required to beef up their security and report cyber hacking events. Under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA for short), whistleblowers with inside information about activities that threaten the financial stability of banks are eligible for an award of up to $1.6 million. This means that if a bank fails to protect its data or fails to report security events, awards may be available to those insiders who step forward instead.

Defense contractors have similar rules. Last year the Defense Department passed significant emergency rule making to insure that vendors who work with our military are taking proper steps to protect their data and information. Compliance officers, however, tell us of companies that won’t encrypt, have no written security protocols or fail to follow protocols. When it comes to our military and intelligence agencies, vendors who fail to protect their software systems directly put American lives at risk.

Do you want the Chinese or terrorist groups to be able to know of our battle plans or troop movements? Of course not but it only takes one lax contractor to put thousands of soldiers at risk.

Public companies and brokerage firms are the subject of new SEC and CFTC cybersecurity guidelines. Both agencies have whistleblower programs that can pay awards for information about material weaknesses and significant undisclosed risks.

FIRREA, CFTC and SEC whistleblowers have an added benefit of being able to remain anonymous, too.

We have several pending investigations surrounding cybersecurity. If you know of companies, defense contractors, government contractors, brokerage firms, banks or financial institutions with unreported cyberhacks or weak security measures, call us. You may be eligible for a sizeable award.

 

EMS – Medicare Fraud and Medicaid Fraud

We are presently involved in several Medicare and Medicaid fraud claims involving the EMS providers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) believes that the EMS industry has one of the highest rates of fraud within the healthcare industry. The situation has become so dire that in many metropolitan areas, CMS has taken the unprecedented step of freezing new applications for ambulance services. That means that legitimate providers can’t even expand because there is so much fraud that the auditors can’t keep up with the existing providers.

Common themes of fraud within the industry include transporting patients despite a complete lack of medical necessity. Ambulance companies that cater to dialysis patients or who transport patients to and from nursing homes are often guilty of these fraudulent practices. Another type of fraud includes billing for advanced life support transports when only basic life support services were warranted or necessary. Yet another type of EMS fraud involves paying or receiving kickbacks from other healthcare providers.

Millions of dollars have been paid to whistleblowers in these cases and there is plenty more fraud that has yet to be reported. Non Emergency Medical Transportation programs are also rife with fraud. We have plenty of EMS fraud stories on our blog. For more information on ambulance fraud, click here and here. For nonemergency medical transportation program fraud, click here. Need even more information? Type in the word “ambulance” in the search feature of our Due Diligence blog.

 

FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS (FTR)

Frontier has transitioned from a rural telephone provider to today being the 4th largest provider of digital subscriber line in the U.S. The company also offers Internet and digital TV service. In a just unsealed whistleblower complaint, a Frontier subsidiary is accused of defrauding taxpayers.

A competitor sued Frontier West Virginia Inc., a subsidiary of Frontier Communications, and claimed the company defrauded taxpayers in connection with the government’s $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program known commonly as BTOP. The suit says that Frontier was awarded millions of dollars of grant money to extend fiber networks in rural communities but misused much of the money. An insider we spoke with claims that Frontier is engaged in other misdeeds including the not properly collecting and remitting taxes and fees charged to phone subscribers. (Click to read more about Frontier’s alleged fraud.)

We are hoping to speak with someone with inside knowledge of the company, perhaps a billing clerk, regulatory affairs worker or a member of the sales staff. Information, even if a few years old, is helpful

 

GENERAL TELECOMMUNICATION & TECHNOLOGY (GTT)

General Telecommunication & Technology (“GTT”) is global telecommunications and internet provider. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, the company provides services throughout the United States.

A competitor’s telecommunications sales rep tells us the company often mischarges taxes on customer bills. In our experience, some telco companies undercharge taxes in order to give them a pricing advantage over their legitimate, law-abiding competitors. Others improperly charge and pocket tax dollars instead of turning them over to the government.

We are looking for an insider to verify this information and serve as a potential whistleblower. An ideal whistleblower is a sales rep or someone who works with taxes and regulatory matters. Even if your information is a few years old, it can still be useful in filing a whistleblower complaint.

 

MOBILE HOMES FINANCING (Clayton Homes and Vanderbilt Mortgage)

Clayton Homes is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the 4th largest pubic company in the world. It was acquired by billionaire Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway in 2003. Since then, Clayton has become the dominant force in the mobile home industry. Today almost half the mobile homes sold in the U.S. are sold and and / or financed by Clayton Homes or one of its affiliates.

Most of the financing gets directed to Vanderbilt Mortgage or 21st Mortgage. We are told that borrowers are not told of the relationship between the companies.(Both companies are owned by Berkshire Hathaway.) Nor are they told they have financing options.  Customers often feel like they are “shopping around” for the best deal but little do they know that Berkshire controls the industry.

In January 2016, we posted in search of whistleblowers at Clayton Homes and Vanderbilt Mortgage. That post was prompted by investigative journalism reports from the Seattle Times and our friends at the Center for Public Integrity.  Those stories were filled with predatory lending tales and extremely high interest loans. We were also prompted after several Congress members asked the Justice Department to begin its own inquiry.

Since that post, we have heard from several homeowners. All have horror stories of predatory lending and / or bait and switch tactics. Our investigation has revealed shocking abuses both on the underwriting end (loan origination) and on how the companies service their loans.

Mobile home buyers are often on fixed income or strapped for cash. Unfortunately, Clayton Homes and its management know this. They know that most borrowers can’t afford a lawyer to sue for damages. Despite a 2011 jury finding that Vanderbilt Mortgage, Clayton Homes and affiliate CMH Homes were guilty of a racketeering conspiracy, things haven’t improved.

Presently we have expanded our investigation of these companies to now include possible class actions on behalf of homeowners. If you borrowed from Vanderbilt Mortgage, 21st Mortgage or another affiliate to purchase or refinance a Clayton Home and believe you were treated unfairly, contact us.

Please note that we cannot take individual cases against these companies but are considering a class action on behalf of all similarly situated borrowers. Please ignore the voice prompts that say we do not handle individual claims. Just mention that you are calling about Clayton / Vanderbilt / 21st Mortgage.

In class cases, the law firm typically does not charge costs or legal fees unless you collect money.

 

 

PILL MILLS

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that sales of prescription opioid painkillers in the U.S. have quadrupled between 1999 and 2014 but with no increase in the amount of pain suffered by patients. We aren’t sicker or hurting more, we simply take more drugs. Lots more drugs. And where do all these narcotic painkillers come from? Many come from pain management clinics.

According to the CDC, “Health care providers, including those in primary care settings, report concern about opioid-related risks of addiction and overdose, as well as insufficient training in pain management… Moreover, long-term use of opioid pain relievers for chronic pain can be associated with abuse and overdose, particularly at higher dosages.

While many pain management clinics are legitimate, many others are nothing more than pill mills. Our Due Diligence blog is full of stories about doctors who write massive amount of prescriptions for high power narcotics, sometimes without seeing the patients or with complete awareness that the patient is abusing and / or selling their drugs. One Detroit area clinic was using patient recruiters to solicit homeless people and addicts to come to the clinic.

When state and federal healthcare dollars are used to pay for these prescriptions, whistleblower awards are available. In some states such as Illinois and California, awards are also available when private insurance is used.

Shutting down illegal pill mills isn’t just good for taxpayers. With so many deaths associated with prescription drug abuse and so many crimes too, reporting these greedy doctors and physicians is simply the right thing to do.

If you worked as a patient recruiter, worked in a pill mill or currently work in a pill mill, contact us immediately. Even if you left a few years ago, your information may still be useful and make you eligible for an award. For more information, contact attorney Brian Mahany at or by telephone at (direct). All inquiries are confidential.

 

PRIVATE PRISONS and PRISON HEALTHCARE

In August of 2016, the Justice Department announced that it would not be signing any more contracts to house federal prisoners or immigration detainees in private prisons. In recent years, the private prison industry has been booming. Today it is a multi-billion dollar industry that houses well over 100,000 inmates.

Originally designed to be a money saving measure, the Justice Department concluded that private prisons are less safe, more punitive and often don’t save much money. State run prisons, while often inefficient, have as their goals rehabilitation and protection of the public. Private prisons want to make money and if that means keeping prisoners longer or cutting back on services, so be it.

Even in state run facilities, inmate healthcare is often privatized. Today that means that most inmate healthcare has been relegated to private vendors.

Our investigations have revealed that private prison companies sometimes don’t maintain staffing as required by contract, cut corners and fail to deliver educational and substance abuse services. That means inmates when they are released are more likely to reoffend.

One jail official tells us that private prison healthcare means that inexperienced nurses are being forced to treat hundreds of inmates even though contracts call for better staffing and on site physicians.

Even though private prisons are being phased out at the federal level, they remain a fixture in about half the states. And federal whistleblower laws allow us to bring claims for events up to 6 years ago.

If you have information about fraud involving private prisons or prison healthcare, give us a call. We have helped our whistleblower clients receive over $100 million in awards. Big companies that are supplying these services include the GEO Group (Wackenhut), Corrections Corporation of America, Community Education Centers and Corizon.

 

VA LOAN SCAMS – Freedom Mortgage and Loan Depot (loanDepot)

We are currently investigating whether mortgage lenders loanDepot and Freedom Mortgage are engaged in faulty underwriting practices in connection with home mortgage loans backed by the U.S. Veterans Administration.

Two clients have reported possible improprieties with both companies.

According to the VA, Freedom Mortgage is the largest VA lender in the United States. Last year 8% of all VA loans were written by Freedom. That equates to 52,816 new loans and doesn’t even include refinancings. There is nothing wrong with being the largest lender but earlier this year, the Justice Department hit the company with $113 million in penalties for underwriting, origination and quality assurance deficiencies in the lender’s FHA loan program. Our client believes there may similar problems on the VA side.

When government backed loans goes into default, it is taxpayer dollars that get spent to make investors whole. Bad loans also mean a greater likelihood that a vet may lose her or his home. Our client says that she was overcharged in certain closing costs, another example of veterans being exploited.

We need to speak to veterans with VA loans and an insider –past or present – from Freedom Mortgage. Our preference is to speak with people who have worked or obtained a VA loan during the last 6 years. To learn more about our Freedom Mortgage investigation, click here.

We are also investigating a potential claim related to loanDepot (also known as Loan Depot). Although only in existence for 6 years, loanDepot is one of the fastest growing lenders in the US. It also part of the new breed of nonbank lenders – loanDepot isn’t a bank and is not subject to the same rules and oversight that banks have.

Last year, a HUD audit of the company’s FHA loan program found problems. Although the audit was limited to Federal Housing Administration loans, we worry that similar underwriting problems are taking place with VA backed loans. Once again, we have a client who reports questionable underwriting practices.

To better evaluate those claims, we are looking to speak with veterans who have obtained a loan from loanDepot during the last 6 years. We also welcome the opportunity to speak with company insiders including past or present underwriters, loan officers or compliance / QC professionals. To learn more about our Loan Depot investigation, click here.

To date, we have clients involved with Freedom Mortgage and loanDepot VA loans. There are plenty of other companies writing these loans, however. The 10 largest VA lenders are (in order): Freedom Mortgage Corp., Quicken Loans Inc., USAA, Wells Fargo, Veterans United Home Loans, Navy Federal Credit Union, SunWest Mortgage Company, Loan Depot, Flagstar Bank and 360 Mortgage Group. We know from other investigations and public reports that Quicken Loans, Wells Fargo and Flagstar have been involved in other reported complaints about their conventional (non-VA) lending. If you have information about any VA loan violations, we hope to speak with you.

As always, all inquiries are completely confidential. We will never use your information without your permission.

 

OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING | INTELENET | SERCO

As banks cut corners, tons of jobs are now being lost to offshore outsourcing. In the financial services industry, that means customer service reps and mortgage underwriters. Banks and mortgage companies have the right to save money, of course. But not when saving money means cutting corners and writing shoddy loans.

Many of the mortgage underwriting and servicing jobs today are being done in the Philippines. In fact, many of the call center jobs in India have left and set up shop in the Philippines.

The pressure to produce is immense. So much so, that quality has dramatically deteriorated. We are currently investigating claims that US banks and other lenders have begun a massive offshore outsourcing campaign. While outsourcing is nothing new, some banks and lenders are sending functions that require qualified or licensed people to places where the labor is cheap and the quality poor.

Ironically, as the Philippines tries to muscle into the work recently performed in Mumbai and other Indian cities, some Indian companies are cutting even more corners just to stay price competitive. A recent press release from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India says that India is losing 70% of its call center business to eastern Europe and the Philippines.

Who suffers when US home loans are being processed in low quality, high pressure offshore shops? American taxpayers and homeowners.

Taxpayers suffer because most residential mortgages are today backed by the government. That means our tax dollars.

Homeowners suffer because they are put in homes they can’t afford or aren’t worth what they were told. Underwriters are supposed to be catching these things. But with so much of the work now offshore and being done by unqualified people, the system has miserably failed.

To write a federally insured loan, a bank or mortgage company must certify full compliance with all FHA, HUD and other rules. A lender that doesn’t comply violates the False Claims Act. That means triple damages and big penalties.

For whistleblower, it means the ability to collect huge cash awards.

Whistleblower Awards for Offshore Outsourcing Information

The False Claims Act pays awards of up to 30% of whatever monies are collected from the wrongdoers. Qualifying for an award means being the first to file a sealed complaint in federal court. It also means having inside, nonpublic information about fraud involving US mortgage guaranty programs.

When the wrongful conduct involves offshore outsourcing, it means mortgage underwriters being paid on a commission basis, poor quality work, incomplete loan files, inadequate sampling or work being performed by unqualified personnel.

Investigation Involving Serco and Intelenet

Serco Group PLC is a British outsourcing company with an extensive presence in India as well as the Philippines, Europe, Middle East, South Africa, Mauritius, Guatemala and Australia. Intelenet is short for Intelenet Global Services Private Ltd. It is an outsourcing company based in Mumbai but claims several U.S. facilities. For a while, Serco owned an interest in Intelenet.

We believe that over the last 6 years, both companies have violated the False Claims Act by improperly processing mortgage applications (underwriting). Banks and mortgage companies that do business with these entities are primarily liable if they knowingly allow unqualified vendors to process federally insured mortgages.

Other Offshore Outsourcing Schemes

Our investigation is not limited to Serco and Intelenet. Any company that writes federally insured mortgages and fails to properly comply with all underwriting guidelines is potentially liable if the noncompliance is material.

Recently, the case we filed against Allied Home Mortgage in March of 2011 went to trial. On November 29th, a Houston jury awarded the government $92 million after finding that Allied violated the False Claims Act. One of the violations was an allegation that the company had offshored its quality control operations to the Virgin Islands. Witnesses say that when questioned, one of the alleged quality control specialists there didn’t even know what a mortgage was.

Do we want these folks handling our mortgage underwriting?

We have no issue with folks in the Philippines, India, the Virgin Islands or anywhere else performing these tasks as long as they have the required training and licensing and follow all underwriting guidelines. We think they often don’t because they are both outside the U.S. and therefore beyond the easy reach of regulators and because some of these companies hide behind thinly staffed U.S. offices making it appear that the work is being done locally by qualified personnel.

If you have information about illegal offshore outsourcing or any other violations of HUD mortgage underwriting guidelines, contact us. You may be entitled to a substantial cash award. All inquiries are protected by the attorney – client privilege and kept confidential.

Not a U.S. citizen? Don’t worry. You still qualify for an award if you have inside information of wrongdoing.

For more information, contact attorney Brian Mahany at or by telephone at (direct).