Monthly Archives: March 2015
SEC Whistleblower Investigation Leads to Concern Over Protecting Confidential Information
A recent article from the Wall Street Journal indicates that the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) began a formal inquiry into whether corporations are setting up their confidentiality agreements in ways that prevent their employees from reporting violations of securities law to the SEC. This article is just the most recent report of significant concerns […]
Maine to Pay Out $142,500 to Settle Whistleblower Suit
The state Department of Health and Human Services in Maine will pay $142,500 to a former employee as a part of a settlement for a federal whistleblower suit. That employee is Sharon Leahy-Lind, who was at one time a division director under the employment of the Maine Center for Disease Control. She filed a lawsuit […]
OSHA Requests $39 Million in Additional Funding for 2016
According to the 2016 Fiscal Year budget proposals in the Department of Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has requested an additional $39 million of funding for next year. The funding would help the agency to hire 90 additional members to its full-time staff, including 60 that would be dedicated to federal enforcement. […]
Fox Hollow Technologies Agrees to Settle False Claims Act Allegations
The United States Department of Justice recently announced that ev3 Inc., a company that recently acquired Fox Hollow Technologies, agreed to pay a $1.25 million penalty to settle accusations that Fox Hollow had committed violations of the False Claims Act by causing some of its hospital clients to submit false claims through the Medicare program. […]
Dignity Health Pays $37 Million After Claims of Overbilling
Major whistleblower claims have been occurring in a wide variety of industries lately. One of the industries in which fraud is most prevalent is the health care industry, and this past fall an instance of fraud cost a hospital chain a great deal of money. Dignity Health, a hospital chain based in San Francisco and […]
Whistleblower Exposes Wrongdoing at Arizona Corporation Commission
One employee of the Arizona Corporation Commission claims to have uncovered wrongdoing within the agency, and that he was offered a promotion to keep silent about it. But now various allegations against former commissioner Gary Pierce, who just retired in December, have been made public, thanks to a seven-page letter written by that employee to […]
Recent NLRB Decision Focuses on Business Email Use
A recent decision made by the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the board will presume that any employees that have access to their employer’s email system during their work also have a right to use that email to engage in certain protected communications while they are not working. The decision came about after an […]
Court Rules That Outing a Whistleblower Constitutes Retaliation
When whistleblowers intend to remain in their company after alerting authorities to wrongdoing, it is imperative that they are able to maintain their privacy so that they would not be the victims of retaliation by other employees. In a case involving a whistleblower for Halliburton Co., a court ruled that a company that reveals the […]
Supreme Court Issues Major Ruling Affecting Federal Workers Violating Agency Regulations
On January 21, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling determining that federal workers that violate agency regulations are still covered by federal whistleblower protections. The case was DHS v. MacLean, and involved an agent of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) who disclosed information that he was prohibited to give by TSA regulations. […]
