Monthly Archives: April 2019
Government Accountability Project Files Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Kraft-Heinz Foods
The Government Accountability Project (GAP) recently filed a lawsuit against Kraft-Heinz Foods on behalf of Dr. David Glover, a former sanitation manager at the company’s poultry processing facility in Newberry, South Carolina. Dr. Glover says he discovered five million pounds of poultry products contaminated with a cleaning solution. He attempted to report the contamination internally […]
Representing Whistleblowers in Companies With Deferred Prosecution Agreements
Businesses that secure a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) from the Department of Justice should be highly motivated to honor the agreement’s terms and avoid any hint of further violations. However, it does not always work this way, and some companies continue to engage in the conduct that precipitated their legal trouble. These actions can prompt […]
Hooters Among Latest Employers Targeted with Lawsuits over Handling of Employee Fingerprints
The Hooters chain of restaurants recently was in court recently to respond to a lawsuit alleging it violated an Illinois privacy law when it reportedly began collecting and storing employee fingerprints. Hooters’ employees use their fingerprints to check in and out of work shifts and track the amount of hours they work. However, the lawsuit […]
SEC Accused of Mishandling Whistleblower Claim Regarding Financial Misconduct at Deutsche Bank
The economy has come a long way since the financial crisis of the late 2000s. However, the fallout for the big banks and discussions of how the federal government should regulate them continues. One whistleblower accused a senior Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official during the financial crisis of mishandling a tip he sent in […]
How to Respond if Your Company Attempts to Push You
National pharmacy chain Walgreens recently settled a pair of False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuits with the federal government for a total of $269 million. The claims involved allegations of improper billing. In the first lawsuit, Walgreens was alleged to have billed federal healthcare programs (including Medicaid and Medicare) for distributing insulin pens to hundreds of […]
Eagle Home Mortgage Accused of Approving Unqualified Buyers
Eagle Home Mortgage, a subsidiary of Lennar, is the defendant in a new whistleblower lawsuit that alleges the lender routinely approved unqualified borrowers for mortgages, going so far as to falsify borrowers’ documents to increase the chances of approval. The suit also claims the company hid negative findings on audited loans from regulators. This latest […]
Identifying and Reporting a Ponzi Scheme
It is hard to believe, but we have now passed the 10-year anniversary of the federal government bringing down Bernie Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. This scheme did ultimately do some good, as it led to Congress enacting the whistleblower program at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but many people lost a whole lot of […]
Federal Government Joins Hospital Whistleblower Suit
The U.S. federal government announced it would join a whistleblower lawsuit filed against a West Virginia hospital. The suit includes allegations the hospital improperly submitted payments and kickbacks to physicians under the direction of its management firm and chief executive officer. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2017 and was made public for the first […]
Sprint to Pay $330 Million in Whistleblower Tax Fraud Settlement
Sprint, the fourth-most popular mobile phone carrier in the United States, recently agreed to settle a whistleblower lawsuit to the tune of $330 million. The whistleblower in the case alleged the company had been regularly committing tax fraud since 2005, and first brought allegations against Sprint in 2011. The Attorney General’s office decided to join […]
