As 2023 wraps up, it’s worth a look back at what has been a defining year for whistleblowers. After the flood of pandemic-related stimulus money, 2023 saw a series of prosecutions related to misuse of those funds — brought to light by people who spoke up about the fraudulent use of public money. Whistleblowers also continued to alert the government to troubling allegations of fraud in the health care system, one of the government’s largest single expenses. Whistleblowers received millions … [Read more...]

Keller Grover attorney Kathleen R. Scanlan joined Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Michael D. Granston, to discuss their views on whistleblower law and the critical role whistleblowers play in False Claims Act enforcement as panelists during a Nov. 2 webinar sponsored by the Federal Bar Association’s Qui Tam Section. Ms. Scanlan primarily represents whistleblowers using the False Claims Act and state versions of the FCA to … [Read more...]

In June the Supreme Court issued an opinion that affirmed the government’s broad discretion to intervene after a whistleblower files a False Claims Act case, and move to dismiss the case against the whistleblower’s objections. Six months later, however, the Justice Department indicates it has no plans to broadly use this dismissal authority on non-intervened FCA cases. Here’s more about the case at issue: In U.S. ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., et al., whistleblower … [Read more...]

The IRS Whistleblower Office paid $37.75 million in awards to 132 whistleblowers in fiscal 2022, according to its latest annual report.  “The IRS uses increasingly sophisticated data analytics and other methods to detect non-compliance with tax laws, but we can’t find it all by ourselves,” office director John Hinman said in the report. “We need help from whistleblowers — people with firsthand knowledge of noncompliance who are willing to share what they know with us so we can investigate it … [Read more...]