Author Archives: Steve Kardell
Sanofi-Aventis Earns $38 Million for Role in Blowing Whistle on Maker of EpiPens
Sanofi-Aventis, a large pharmaceutical company, was awarded $38.7 million for its role in bringing a $465 million False Claims Act case against Mylan. The company settled amid allegations that it knowingly misclassified EpiPen as a generic drug so it could avoid paying back the rebates it owed to Medicaid. The lawsuit was initially filed under […]
Whistleblower Files Lawsuit Against Honeywell International for Alleged Retaliation
A former employee has filed a lawsuit against Honeywell International, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Morris Plains, New Jersey. She is alleging fraud, breach of contract and discrimination. In the lawsuit, the woman claims Honeywell hired her to increase diversity, but essentially used her as “window dressing” for the company. She says Honeywell lured […]
Island Health and RMCP Investigate Possible Incident of Caregiver Stealing Senior’s Money
A woman who was hired to take care of a senior citizen from Nanaimo may have used that opportunity to steal his money, according to the 93-year-old man she was working for and his daughter. The man daughter says she has been “losing sleep” and “throwing up” because of the situation. The man said he […]
Navy Fired Whistleblower After Reports of Fuel Safety Risks
The U.S. Navy is under fire for terminating a civilian whistleblower who reportedly discovered life-threatening risks to pilots and others due to the improper testing of aircraft fueling equipment and jet fuel that was found to degrade aircraft engines and cause flameouts. The whistleblower was fired June 8, which just happened to be the same […]
Whistleblower’s Retaliation Claim in Minnesota Reinstated by Federal Appeals Court
The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled a whistleblower retaliation claim filed by a lab quality technician at a Springfield, Minnesota, facility run by MAT Holdings, Inc. would be allowed to proceed. In the claim, the worker claims he was fired after complaining to a state agency about his employer asking him to […]
Medicare Advantage Insurers Reach $32 Million Settlement in Whistleblower Case
A pair of Medicare Advantage insurers based in Florida agreed to pay nearly $32 million to settle a whistleblower claim. In the claim, a whistleblower alleged the insurance providers routinely exaggerated the severity of patients’ conditions and took various other steps to overbill Medicare. The suit was initially filed in 2009 by Dr. Darren Sewell, […]
DCS Investigations Reveal Improper Donations, Additional Wrongdoing
This spring, NBC 5 in Dallas produced a 30-minute in-depth investigative report surrounding developments in the investigation into Dallas County Schools (DCS), a taxpayer-funded agency that oversees the transportation of more than 75,000 students in North Texas each day. According to the report, DCS was experiencing financial turmoil that led it to sell land owned […]
Recent Whistleblower Case Shows Potential for Reduction in Monetary Awards
On February 28, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) awarded a whistleblower 20 percent of the sanctions paid in association with an enforcement action brought forth as a result of unique information provided by that whistleblower. In this case, the SEC clarified that the whistleblower’s own culpability in some of the securities violations at […]
Rule Changes Allow CFTC to File Whistleblower Retaliation Claims
Recently implemented rule changes allow the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to file whistleblower retaliation claims against employers. These changes, adopted in May, also prevent employers from preemptively forbidding employees from communicating with the CFTC. The new rules, which were adopted unanimously, also establish a new claims review process. This will help establish initial determinations […]
False Claims Act Suit Against Genentech Halted
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently halted a False Claims Act lawsuit filed against Genentech Inc. In the suit, the plaintiff claimed the company defrauded Medicare by hiding some side effects of its cancer drug Avastin. The court stated the whistleblower did not show that a failure to report the safety […]
