Bloomberg Law reports on an upcoming legal battle over the denial of Department of Justice request to dismiss a qui tam suit. Over the past two years, federal district courts have granted 25 DOJ motions to dismiss such suits, compared to six in the previous two years, the story notes.

Companies that bill the federal government for services are eager in 2020 to see what courts say about Justice Department decisions to dismiss whistleblower cases it finds to be meritless or a burden on government resources.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is considering how much deference the federal courts should give to those dismissal decisions in a specific case over whether an Illinois federal judge erred in rejecting the DOJ’s move to dismiss a suit alleging a drug kickback scheme by CVS, Omnicare, and others.

More on the Granston memo, which triggered the dismissals:

Continue Reading Can courts proceed with a whistleblower suit after the DOJ seeks dismissal?

Despite Slowdown in Prosecution, Whistleblowers Continue to Play the Critical Role in Detecting Fraud. In statistics published this week by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. government’s recoveries under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) hit their lowest mark since 2008, the last year of President Bush’s administration.  
Continue Reading DOJ False Claims Act Recoveries Hit Ten Year Low

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Photo credit: TaxRebate.org.uk

Washington, D.C. November 8, 2018. Organizers of the OffshoreAlert Conference announced that the leading whistleblower attorney in the United States, Stephen M. Kohn, will speak at next week’s conference in London held at Grange St. Paul’s Hotel, November 12-13. Kohn will give his presentation on Tuesday, November 13 at 1:15 pm.
Continue Reading Top US Whistleblower Attorney to Speak at London Conference on Financial Fraud

Internal-Revenue-Service-buildingIn February 2018, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, requiring the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to include penalties for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) violations in calculating whistleblower awards. Prior to this statutory change being signed into law, FBAR violations were not included in the calculation of IRS whistleblower awards.
Continue Reading GAO Report Finds Excluding FBAR Violations from Award Calculations “Negatively Affected Whistleblowers’ Willingness to Bring Information to IRS”

Whistleblower Law Expert Responds to GAO Report on Combating Wildlife Trafficking

Washington, D.C. May 8, 2018. In a report released today, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued wide-ranging recommendations to increase the effectiveness of paying informants and whistleblowers to report illegal wildlife trafficking.
Continue Reading U.S. Government Accountability Office Urges Federal Government to Take Stronger Action to Promote Wildlife Crime Whistleblowers

The international visitors delegation take a picture with presenters Michael Kohn, President of NWC, and Maya Efrati, an NWC legal fellow.

A delegation from countries including India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, visited the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) today to learn about U.S. whistleblower reward laws and their role in cracking down on fraud both domestically and internationally. The visit was facilitated by the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), an initiative of the U.S. Department of State.Continue Reading Delegation from South Asian Countries Visits the National Whistleblower Center

medical-stethoscope-blue-pen-paper-medicare-fraudIn a recent interview with the AARP, Attorney General Sessions took a strong stance against Medicare fraud and empowering Medicare whistleblowers. Sessions stated that it’s time to consider taking Medicare fraud as seriously as the war on drugs (certainly an issue Attorney General Sessions believes to be of paramount importance).

Medicare fraud is a serious issue. It is estimated that 10% of Medicare funds are lost to fraud and waste, totaling approximately $16.2 billion. This suggests that billions of dollars, which should be directed to funding health care for our seniors, are instead going to fraudsters taking advantage of American taxpayers and the elderly.Continue Reading Whistleblowers Vital to Eliminating Medicare Fraud

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held a hearing entitled “Oversight of the False Claims Act,” in which corporate lobbyists organized by the Chamber of Commerce worked to advance their agenda to cripple the False Claims Act.
Continue Reading False Claims Act Hearing a Success

This week the Department of Justice issued a series of press releases announcing settlements in several cases under the False Claims Act. The settlement of these cases, originally brought under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, resulted in recoveries of over $200 million for the U.S. Taxpayers. The settlements are