Whistleblower Blog Archives - Page 21 of 36

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Latest IRAQ FRAUD Report by Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction

February 2, 2007
Michael Sullivan

We saw yesterday’s quarterly audit report on Iraq fraud, published by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), Stuart Bowen Jr. The message is sobering:

“The security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort,” in the words of the Inspector General.

We all have already seen reports of how the United States is being exploited by dishonest and incompetent contractors in Iraq. This IG Report discusses not only poor security, but also
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Government Joins Whistleblower Case Against Pharmaceutical Firm for Overcharging on Generic Drugs

February 1, 2007
Michael Sullivan

We saw another significant whistleblower case against a drug company hit the news wire this week.

The government announced that it was joining a qui tam lawsuit under the False Claims Act against the company Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane, Inc. The Complaint alleges overcharging on pharmaceutical products.

In joining this lawsuit, the United States has alleged that the drug company engaged in a “scheme to report fraudulent and inflated prices for several pharmaceutical products, knowing that federal health care programs established reimbursement rates based on those reported prices.”

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Progress with the New IRS Rewards Program for Tax Whistleblower Cases

January 31, 2007
Michael Sullivan

We have been working with the IRS to bring information about large tax cheating to the IRS’s attention, so that clients can participate in the new IRS Whistleblower rewards. The IRS officials sound excited to have this new tool at their disposal, and we are happy to help our whistleblower clients obtain the new rewards. Our latest one deals with fraud in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, where the public and government have been cheated out of what appears to be many millions of
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Hurricane Katrina Fraud: The Government’s Inspectors General Continue to Investigate Fraud and Whistleblower Reports

January 26, 2007
Michael Sullivan

We all remember how Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita left the Gulf Coast devastated. As government agencies began to provide disaster relief with public dollars, dishonest contractors saw a huge opportunity for fraud against the government. Too many FEMA contracts have been the targets of dishonest contractors.

The “watchdogs” of the federal government agencies–the various Inspectors General of the many agencies involved in Katrina relief–have combined their efforts and sent hundreds of auditors to the Gulf region to examine fraud and mismanagement of Katrina

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New IRS Whistleblower Rewards Statute

January 26, 2007
Michael Sullivan

We hear from many lawyers and clients that they are not aware of the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program. The new provisions took effect on December 20, 2006, and yet so far they are locate on the web.

We hope it is helpful to you to find the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards amendments here, in the amended version of the statute:

26 U.S.C. § 7623.

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Why States Are Passing Their Own Qui Tam Whistleblower Laws

January 24, 2007
Michael Sullivan

I looked into the experiences that states have had with their own False Claims Acts, because almost every state is considering passing its own. I have tried to provide a brief summary that I hope is useful to you.

To encourage states to enact their own False Claims statutes with qui tam whistleblower provisions that are at least as effective as the federal Act, Congress created a large financial incentive when it passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. States that have or enact such acts become eligible as of January 1, 2007, for a 10% increase in the state’s share of Medicaid fraud recoveries.

Many states, therefore, will consider whether to follow suit by enacting their own False Claims Act as early as 2007. Thus, it is important to consider other states’ experiences with their own state statutes governing false claims.

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Will Your State Have a State False Claims Act?

January 23, 2007
Michael Sullivan

Finch McCranie, LLP has recently learned that many state government officials, including Governor Perdue of Georgia, have received a proposed State False Claims Act for consideration to be enacted in 2007. Even though the Bill has been drafted and is on his desk, at present, the Bill has not been submitted to the Legislature for consideration. Obviously, this raises a serious question as to why it is that the Governor is delaying action on this important piece of legislation.

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Significant 2006 Verdicts and Settlements of Qui Tam Whistleblower Cases Under the False Claims Act

January 22, 2007
Michael Sullivan

In our multi-part explanation of the federal False Claims Act previously posted, we have summarized the most recent verdicts and settlements of qui tam whistleblower cases (as of December 2006).

We will continue to update you on additional verdicts and settlements of significance.

The Whistleblower Statute: The Text of the False Claims Act

January 22, 2007
Michael Sullivan

We have tried to explain what readers may want to know about how the whistleblower statute works, in our article explaining the False Claims Act. Here is the current language of this law that creates rewards for qui tam whistleblowers:

FALSE CLAIMS ACT
TITLE 31. MONEY AND FINANCE
SUBTITLE III. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 37. CLAIMS
SUBCHAPTER III. CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

3729. False claims

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No More Gifts For Doctors

January 22, 2007
Michael Sullivan

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations revised its Code of Ethics on January 1 of this year for the first time in a decade. Under the newly revised Code of Ethics, members of the trade group which represents pharmaceutical companies worldwide may no longer provide “expensive gifts” or paid trips to physicians. While the code allows members to provide physicians with gifts that are related to prescription drugs that are inexpensive such as pens, paperweights, stethoscopes and other de mini’s gifts, the new

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Attorney Assisting Offshore Tax Evasion Is Rewarded With Prison Sentence and Judgment to PAy of $2.7 Million

August 24, 2008
Michael Sullivan

As this whistleblower lawyer blog has written about often, abuses of offshore transactions have increasingly become a target of IRS enforcement efforts. A Utah attorney learned this lesson last week when he was sentenced to ten years in prison, and was ordered to pay $2.7 million, for his role in an offshore tax evasion scheme that deprived the government of more than $20 million in taxes.

Attorney Dennis B. Evanson of Sandy, Utah, was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud,
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New Jersey Medicare Contractor Settles Health Care Fraud Case under False Claims Act

August 16, 2008
Michael Sullivan

The Medicare program depends on the integrity of “trusted contractors” to process and pay Medicare claims. This past week, one of those “trusted contractors” operating in New Jersey, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, agreed to pay the federal government $2.1 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act.

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee operated as the primary Medicare Part A Fiscal Intermediary for New Jersey, under the name “Riverbend Government Benefit Administrators.”

The government had alleged that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee “failed to
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OIG Approves False Claims Acts of California, Georgia, Indiana, and Rhode Island, But Disapproves False Claims Acts of Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Oklahoma

August 6, 2008
Michael Sullivan

The wave of new State False Claims Acts has generated a flurry of letters from the Office of Inspector General of HHS this past week. OIG has now “approved” the new State False Claims Acts of California, Georgia, Indiana, and Rhode Island, but has “disapproved” those of six other states: Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

As this whistleblower lawyer blog has written about extensively, Congress has created financial incentives for states to enact their own versions of the highly
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New Whistleblower Law Promotes Consumer Product Safety

August 5, 2008
Michael Sullivan

On July 31, Congress enacted a new Whistleblower Law designed to promote consumer product safety. The new federal legislation specifically was enacted to protect public and private sector employees who disclose to their employers, a regulatory agency or a state Attorney General any perceived violation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The law also provides protection for employees who refuse to participate in violations of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Act. Obviously, the purpose of this legislation was to protect employees who, in good faith,
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IRS Announces Process for Review of Whistleblower Claims by IRS Large and Midsize Business Division (LMSB)

August 1, 2008
Michael Sullivan

As another step toward the further development of the new IRS Whistleblower Program, our friends at the IRS Large and Midsize Business Division (LMSB) in Lower Manhattan have announced a three-step process for IRS Whistleblower claims that are eligible for the new “rewards” authorized by Congress in December 2006.

IRS Commisioner Frank Ng describes it as a “process for analyzing informant information and disseminating it to the field” for claims with at least $2 million in question, which is the threshold amount for whistleblowers
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Judges Address New State False Claims Act in Georgia

July 30, 2008
Michael Sullivan

At the annual “Continuing Judicial Education” conference in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia this week, I was honored to be invited to speak to the assembled judges about the new state False Claims Act in Georgia, the State False Medicaid Claims Act.

As this whistleblower lawyer blog has written about extensively, there is a wave of new state False Claims Acts across the country, as Congress has urged states to replicate the dramatic successes of the federal False Claims Act in stopping those
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Offshore Tax Evasion and Cayman Islands Hearing Prompts Grassley’s Call to Follow IRS Whistleblower Program with Additional IRS Tools

July 29, 2008
Michael Sullivan

At the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on the Cayman Islands and offshore tax evasion last week, Senator Charles Grassley reiterated the importance of the new IRS Whistleblower program to combat tax evasion, but also stressed the need for Congress to provide the IRS greater tools to address offshore tax evasion.

The July 24 hearing focused on GAO’s investigation into the Ugland House, a law firm’s office building in the Cayman Islands that is the registered address of thousands of corporations. The hearing also examined
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IRS Predicts Whistleblowers Will Be Important to Efforts to Combat Offshore Tax Evasion After UBS

July 28, 2008
Michael Sullivan

This past week the IRS Commissioner of the Large and Midsized Business Division summarized the IRS’s efforts to combat offshore tax evasion. He predicted that whistleblowers will become increasingly important to the IRS’ efforts, given the existence of the new IRS Whistleblower rewards.

IRS Commissioner Frank Ng described to Congress the “critical importance to tax administration in this country — the practice of sheltering U.S. earned income in foreign jurisdictions as a means of avoiding U.S. taxation.”

He identified as “Tier I” issues the following transactions::

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Nursing Home Operators Plead Guilty to Medicaid Fraud and Abuse of Patients

July 27, 2008
Michael Sullivan

Having lunch this week with a public servant who investigates heath care fraud, I was struck once again by his descriptions of abuses that nursing home residents too often suffer, many of which our whistleblower attorneys had also encountered in past cases.

It is damnable enough to steal federal and state taxpayer funds that are supposed to pay for care of our elderly through Medicare and Medicaid. It is another level of depravity to ignore our elder citizens’ medical needs–and even to steal from
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Hospital System Settles Medicare Fraud False Claims Act Allegations for $60 Million

July 26, 2008
Michael Sullivan

The government’s announcement this week of a $60 million Medicare fraud settlement with a Missouri hospital system is yet another example of the need for ongoing deterrence of health care fraud.

According to the government, Lester E. Cox Medical Systems violated the False Claims Act, the nation’s primary tool for combating fraud against taxpayer funds. Dating back to 1995 and continuing to recent years, Cox allegedly committed various unlawful acts, including submitting fraudulent cost reports to obtain Medicare funds, entering into illegal arrangements
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