ATLANTA,GA
DULUTH, GA
We saw more good news when the IRS announced the first director of the new IRS Whistleblower Office–Stephen A. Whitlock. Mr. Whitlock was formerly in charge of the Office of Professional Responsibility. He also had led anti-fraud and abuse programs at the Defense Department.
The IRS’s press release is reprinted here:
IRS Begins Work on Whistleblower Office; Whitlock Named First Director
(more…)According to a recent report issued by the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, State enforcement results regarding Medicaid fraud cases have been disappointing. Virtually every state in the country has a State Medicaid Fraud Control Unit whose principle job is to uncover and detect fraud and to prosecute the offenders. Such units are also tasked with the responsibility of attempting to recover monies fraudulently obtained from the Medicaid program. Because Medicaid is approximately twenty (20%) percent of the total federal
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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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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.”
(more…)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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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
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.
(more…)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.
(more…)We understand the uncertainty that comes with legal issues. Our attorneys are here to guide you every step of the way — from the first consultation to courtroom resolution (if that becomes necessary). We offer confidential, no-obligation case evaluations.
📞 Call us today at (404) 341-5356 or email finchmccranie@finchmccranie.com to schedule your consultation.