Whistleblower Group

Lesson Learned From the Petraeus Affair -- Intelligence Agents Need Whistleblower Protections Too

By Gordon Schnell and Marlene Koury (published in The Hill) As the details of the General Petraeus affair continue to unravel, there still remains a shroud of mystery over the FBI leak that prompted this whole media frenzy.  We know that FBI agent Fred Humphries was the whistleblower who first reported the agency’s investigation to House majority leader Eric Cantor.  We know that Humphries was the agent to whom...

Everything You Want to Know About the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and More

By Jason Enzler In a move that should help both businesses and those seeking to combat fraud, the SEC and DOJ jointly released a 120-page guide on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on Wednesday.  The guide does not represent any changes to the law or new trends in its enforcement, but it does gather in one place an easy-to-read discussion of the law and its prohibitions, answers to hypothetical scenarios,...

Blackstone Medical Caught “Entertaining” Physicians in Exchange for Business

By Marlene Koury Orthofix International NV has agreed to pay $30 million to settle allegations that its subsidiary, Blackstone Medical Inc., ran a seven year long kickback scheme ranging from sham consulting agreements to providing physicians with adult “entertainment” to induce them into ordering their products.  Click here to see Department of Justice press release and here for the complaint. Blackstone...

Fudging the Studies -- Senate Report Links Medtronic to Latest Case of Ghostwriting Medical Journal Articles

By Gordon Schnell  In a scathing report it recently released, the Senate Finance Committee charged medical device manufacturer Medtronic, Inc. with engaging in some fairly dastardly deeds to promote its once top-selling bone growth product called InFuse.  The alleged misconduct centers around the company paying off doctors to author medical journal pieces that downplayed or downright ignored serious risks and...

Ratting Out the Snitch - The Troubling Underbelly of the NFL Bounty Scandalffea

By Gordon Schnell (published in Sports Business Journal) It is all about player safety and protecting the integrity of the game.  That was the central message coming out of the NFL's recent pronouncement of punishment against the four Saints players implicated in the now infamous bounty scandal -- Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma.  Safety, integrity, fair play -- it was like a mantra...

A Tale of Two Whistleblower Offices -- The Very Different Approaches of the SEC and IRS

By Gordon Schnell By now, we all have heard about the $104 million awarded to former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld for blowing the whistle on the Swiss banking giant's scheme to help thousands of Americans use offshore accounts to cheat the IRS.  See The IRS Whistleblower Office Gets Serious With Record Setting Award.  It was the largest whistleblower award on record and particularly notable as it came from an...

Fixing a Broken System -- The Institute of Medicine's Groundbreaking Report on Runaway Waste in American Healthcare

By Gordon Schnell There is a lot of chatter these days about trillion dollar deficits and multi-point plans to get the economy back in shape.  President Obama and Governor Romney stick to their respective talking points about their opponent's critical failings and how they will do things better.  The divisions that separate these candidates and their followers, and the country as a whole, have not been this...

CVS Sub Caught Duping Consumers in Prescription Drug Purchases

By Marlene Koury In one of the first False Claims Act settlements involving Medicare's "Part D" prescription drug program, CVS Caremark subsidiary, RxAmerica, agreed to pony up $5.25 million to resolve charges that it submitted false pricing information to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  This is the government body that oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  It also makes available the...