The Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor today issued the interim final regulations governing the employee protection (whistleblower) provision of section 1558 of the Affordable Care Act--also known as Obamacare--which added section 18C of the Fair Labor Standards Act, to provide protections to employees of health insurance issuers or...
The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it was joining a civil lawsuit alleging that Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and Tailwind Sports LLC and Tailwind Sports Corporation (Tailwind) submitted or caused the submission of false claims to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in connection with its sponsorship of a professional bicycle racing team by regularly employing...
The Internal Revenue Service released its Fiscal Year 2012 Report to Congress, which details awards paid to whistleblowers under the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. The whistleblower award program generally requires the IRS to pay awards if information an individual provides substantially contributes to the collection of tax, penalties, interest, and other...
A dermatologist in Venice, Florida, has agreed to pay $26.1 million to resolve allegations that he violated the False Claims Act by accepting illegal kickbacks from a pathology laboratory and by billing Medicare for medically unnecessary services, the U.S. Justice Department announced today. The settlement is the largest ever with an individual under the False Claims...
A jury ordered a nursing home in Illinois to pay a total of $29 million in penalties for false Medicare claims to the government. Two former employees at the facility filed a complaint that the home allegedly destroyed and/or forged records to make it appear that residents were receiving appropriate care and medications, while residents allegedly went without food or...
On February 5, 2013, California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a lawsuit against Standard and Poor's Financial Services LLC and the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. , alleging violations of the California False Claims Act and other state law for inflating ratings of investments, which caused California's teachers public employees' pension funds, among others, to...
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Justice Department officials have recommended joining a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by former teammate Floyd Landis that alleges that Lance Armstrong and team managers defrauded the U.S. government when they accepted money from the U.S. Postal Service and then violated their contract by using performance-enhancing drugs...
On January 1, 2013, the amendments to the California False Claims Act, signed into law last year by Governor Jerry Brown, took effect. The amendments, among other things, expand the definition of a claim under the state False Claims Act, increase the civil penalties for each violation of the law, and provide qui tam plaintiffs with up to 33% of the proceeds of the action or...
The Journal of Accountancy reports that the Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations for whistleblower awards in violation of tax law cases and for the disclosure of tax return information. The proposed regulations are intended to provide general rules for submitting claims to the IRS, rules for proceedings, and factors to evaluate the size of an award. Read the...
The U.S. Secretary of Labor announced the creation of the Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee (WPAC), to advise, consult with and make recommendations to the Department of Labor on ways to improve the fairness, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's whistleblower protection programs. The WPAC members will...
