Whistleblower News

Weeks after a cyberattack on UnitedHeath Group’s Change Healthcare unit crippled the processing of medical claims and prescriptions nationwide — and potentially exposed patient data — some lessons have emerged. First, the federal government and industry executives have known for years that the U.S. healthcare system was vulnerable to hacking, according to The Washington Post, but failed to make improvements that could stop attacks. Ransomware gangs like “Blackcat” (also known as ALPHV) that … [Read more...]

In another example of how the government turns to whistleblowers to help discover and shut down fraud it isn’t able to ferret out on its own, the Justice Department is launching a program this year that will grant monetary awards to whistleblowers who deliver tips on significant corporate or financial misconduct. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the program during a legal conference this month. She said the goal is to address the “full range of corporate and financial … [Read more...]

The U.S. Department of Justice reported record False Claims Act numbers last month: $2.68 billion in recoveries from 543 settlements and judgments in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2023. And for the second straight year, these record numbers show the importance of non-intervened whistleblower cases. Those are lawsuits filed by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act that federal prosecutors declined to intervene in, leaving the whistleblowers and their attorneys, like those at Keller … [Read more...]

Companies that engage in conduct designed to avoid paying custom duties and charges are committing fraud against the federal government. And whistleblowers are often the only people who can alert the government that these types of frauds are happening and how they operate. The government has recovered more than $220 million over the past 12 years in settling 43 False Claims Act cases alleging customs fraud, according to the The Anti-Fraud Coalition. Of those 43 cases, initiated by internal … [Read more...]

The Supreme Court strengthened whistleblower protections in a unanimous decision this month, rejecting an argument that financial whistleblowers need to prove their employers acted with “retaliatory intent” to recover damages when they are fired for engaging in protected activity under the law. The 9-0 vote was a win for former UBS Securities bond strategist Trevor Murray, who had filed a whistleblower complaint under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) saying he was fired from UBS for reporting … [Read more...]