Whistleblower News

A fledgling whistleblower program rewards individuals — whether U.S. citizens or not — who alert the United States about efforts to evade sanctions. It’s particularly relevant today, and it’s not as out of reach as it sounds. Stick with us — we’ll explain. What’s happening with sanctions? When the United States wants to discourage certain behaviors (such as Russia’s war on Ukraine), one of the levers it can pull is sanctions. That can involve political or economic restrictions: freezing … [Read more...]

The expansive Medicaid program spent approximately $909 billion in fiscal year 2024. To help cover health care costs for eligible low-income individuals, the federal government contributes the majority of this funding, while state governments supply the remaining portion. Large government programs often face a significant challenge: fraud. Even so, overall civil settlements, judgments, and recoveries related to Medicaid fraud have trended downward since 2016. Civil fraud cases commonly … [Read more...]

The owners of three medical companies agreed to a $10 million settlement in January to resolve allegations of a kickback scheme that caused false claims to Medicaid and Medi-Cal. California receives $4 million from the settlement. Earlier this year, a pharmaceutical manufacturer and its chief executive officer agreed to a $47 million settlement related to similar allegations. California will receive nearly $385,000. We often discuss the importance of whistleblowers in uncovering billions … [Read more...]

The Department of Veterans Affairs has $66.9 billion in committed contracts — the most procurement dollars of all the U.S. government’s civilian agencies (i.e. not the Department of Defense).  Unfortunately, the VA also appears to rank high in fraud. The VA’s Office of Inspector General recently audited just 20 VA contracts for compliance; it found overcharging in 11 of them. At least two cases involved fraud against the government — False Claims Act violations that the government pursued … [Read more...]

It can happen with something as ubiquitous and unassuming as poultry. A five-year price-fixing scheme inflated the price Americans paid for chicken. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. pleaded guilty in 2021 to a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products — with a sentence that included about $107.9 million in criminal fines. The federal government hopes it can unearth a lot more of these schemes — which are notoriously difficult to detect and investigate (LINK TO PRIOR BLOG) — … [Read more...]