Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : LaBovick Law Firm, Florida : Federal False Claims Act, Qui Tam

Johnathan Friedman, author of E-Commerce Law Blog and Host of the Carnival for Blawg Review #140 did an excellent job, spreading holiday cheer.  I came across his Blawg Review, while checking on our date to be the host of the Blawg Review Round Up/ Carnival next year. Our date for the Whistleblower Law Blog happens to be May 12, 2008, mark your calendars... A Blawg Review is a weekly review of law-related posts from a variety of blogs, hosted on different Blog site each week. The weekly Host decides which submissions and recommended posts are included in the presentation.

I digress, sorry... Now back to why I am writing this post, to tell Mr. Friedman, how much I enjoyed his Carnival. The tie in of the twelve days of Christmas was clever. I must give you two thumbs up for sharing your humor in the Carnival, with the classic song, "The Twelve days of Christmas". I can't get over how Jim Dunigan, A Wealth Manager at PNC was able to keep a straight face throughout his Christmas Price Index (CPI) PNC clip. I shared this with several financial  friends.. They loved it... Thanks for including this in your Blawg Review. You did not stop there with flexing your literary wit. You proceeded to follow the pattern of the famous song with each of your first 12 posts you reviewed. Brilliant... ... I enjoyed reading each one.  Your attention to detail, encouraged me to click on each link to the referenced blog post.  Not to leave anyone out, your stocking stuffers at the tail end, intrigued me just the same... So much so, that a few of the blogs have been tagged as favorites in delicious. I will attempt to highlight a few.   I found the blog post from Lowering the Bar, to be entertaining.  It is nice to have a new addition to my Blawgs with humor. I took note on what Slaw.ca and the analogy between Amazon and Client Activity. Why not interact with customers in ways they prefer?  It leads to a win-win relationship on both ends. Why can't the legal industry take a lesson on mastering client relationships, from an industry giant like Amazon?  I know I am going to catch some heat on this statement. The post from the Inspired Solo on "Aligning your work day for a higher purpose", was enlightening. It made me stop and take a "constructive break". I plan to do follow this a lot more next year.  Staying on track is the only way to accomplish goals, both personal and professional.

 

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This week I read an interesting post from a fellow legal blogger at Blawgletter re: California Supreme Court Upholds Professional Duties: DQ Awaits Cheaters. The post was about a case Rico v. Mitsubishi Motors Corp.,, No. 123808 (Cal. Dec. 13, 2007).

As a young attorney it was hard to balance the greater needs of society with the absolute duty to crush and burn any opposing party to your client's interest. I remember clearly arguing with a more mature and wise attorney about the benefits of professional courtesy vs. the need to do the very best for your client. It is the same with the "notes on the table" decision. In my younger days I would have had a hard time emotionally giving up that advantage. Now that I see that society benefits from professional and honest representation across the board, I am less tempted to keep this type of information.

Brian

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Peter D. Keisler has been tapped by President Bush to serve as Acting Attorney General. Mr. Keisler has served as Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Division since  July 1, 2003. Prior to that, Mr. Keisler served as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General and Acting Associate Attorney General. He joined the Justice Department on June 24, 2002. Unfortunately, it is not likely that that Mr. Keisler will be the permanent AG, since, President Bush nominated him for a position as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Mr. Keisler is well regarded as a great Attorney and equitable and fair man by his peers.  According to a blog post by Ed Whelan, author of Bench Memos, "Everyone should be grateful for Keisler’s continued service. In his blog post, he includes several positive statements from others singing the praises of Peter Keisler, including:

Neal Katyal (opposing counsel in the Hamdan case): Keisler “would be a fabulous judge”; “not an ideologue, but rather a lawyer who took tremendously seriously both his craft and his carefulness.”

David Carpenter (self-described “political liberal” who worked closely with Keisler at Sidley & Austin): “Peter absolutely epitomizes the kind of lawyer and the kind of person who should be sitting on a federal court of appeals”; “personally and intellectually honest, to the very depths of his bones”.

Stephen Sachs (former Maryland AG): Keisler is “especially well qualified to be an outstanding appellate judge”; “judiciousness … marks his values, his conversation, even his advocacy.”

Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman: “I can vouch that Peter is an attorney of great skill, judgment, integrity and fair-mindedness".

The Corporate Crime Reporter team also weighs in on the Peter Keisler Acting AG appointment. In an article, "Know your Attorney General", they write, "the people who like the False Claims Act like Keisler". Patrick Burns of Taxpayers Against Fraud, is quoted in the article saying “Peter Keisler is a first-rate legal mind, and one of those good government guys that brings honor to the notion of public service”.

Peter D. Keisler is a great Attorney and will serve our country well in his role as Acting Attorney General. He will go on to do a superb job as Federal Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

We wish you all the Best in your new role, Peter Keisler. 

Click Here to read more from the Corporate Crime Reporter or Bench Memos.

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Anita Campbell, editor of Small Business Trends hit a home run yesterday with her Law Blwg Round Up for Blawg Review.  I agree with her assessment that "businesspeople can be better at business by learning more about the law. And lawyers can benefit from knowing more about business. Armed with knowledge, we are all better off.”

I enjoyed how Small Business Trends integrated nuggets of useful information on business issues and legal issues for the business community.  What impressed me the most was how practical Anita presented the information. I actually clicked on links to every article she referenced. This is a true testament of her writing skills and use of wit and humor to make even the blandest topics sound interesting. I enjoyed the post from blumenthals.com on fake local search listings;  Susan Cartier Liebel of Build a Solo Practice on social activism; Professor James Edward Maule of Mauled Again on iphone international calling issues and all of the additional posts that wer included.  I must say that I am pleased with how they covered one of our posts from the Whistleblower Law Blog.  The lead in to our post was clever....  I can only hope that the blog community will enjoy our Blawg Review Round Up next year when the Whistleblower Law Blog hosts the Law Blog Round Up on May 12, 2007.

In my humble opinion, Anita Campbell has done a fantastic job with Small Business Trends. I can see why they have been praised by Forbes, MarketingSherpa and About.com.  I look forward to reading more great things from Small Business Trends in the future. Do not take my word, visit the Small Business Trends site and become a believer for yourself.

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Does anyone else have their blood boil when reading about the U.S. Military being involved in covering contractor fraud in Iraq? If the situation in Iraq is one tenth as bad as the stories that come out of Iraq, we are in a heap of trouble. I am speaking about an article that I read in the Dallas News about Navy Veteran, Donald Vance. It was Mr. Vance’s misfortune to gather evidence and documents related to fraud against the US Government by an Iraq corporation.

According to the article, the company was wholesaling guns, land mines, rocket launchers for cash. The company was selling the military equipment to anyone who could pay. Not just selling to US Soldiers, but also selling to Iraqi warlords, insurgents and State Department workers. Literally, they used the term “Wal-Mart” of gun sales. The company allegedly had a “no questions asked” policy.

This war is plagued with corruption. We simply do not know who is corrupt and who isn’t in light of the recent rash of high-level resignations out of the White House. Do you really believe Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove quit because they wanted to spend more time with their families or are they hiding something?

I was sitting here all tee-d off about the article and started to imagine what the government could possibly say to defend locking up a whistleblower who is trying to stop fraud on our own government. Then it came to me! What if the government was using an Iraqi Corporation to lure in and track insurgents? What if the government needed an operation to look so corrupt that anyone, even an insurgent, would purchase military hardware directly from us? The military could then track the weapons once the insurgents had them in their hands.

Would it be worth the human lives that giving insurgents rocket launchers would cost? Not to me. However, to a utilitarian anti-terror government operative, this may sound dandy. Maybe you too like spy novels and ends justify the means plots. However, if you do, I think you’re wrong.

The only way to have a fair and just society is if everyone follows the rule of law. It all starts with a social compact to follow the law. We, in the United States, follow the law. Our social norm is to follow our own laws. No one is supposed to be above the law (regardless of whether Scooter Libby gets any jail time.) We have a civil justice system that we believe fairly takes care of civil disputes and a criminal system that fairly determines the fate of those charged with criminal activity. This needs to extend to all levels of our government, even during foreign mission. We need to play by our own rules.

My analysis of dummy corporations and the like is totally hypothetical. I just dreamed it up. It would make a good spy novel. But in truth, it may be far worse then my moral dilemma. The truth may be that the administration, the military, the foreign corporations, the oil money elite of Iraq and all the others in this mess we are calling a war may all be in bed together ripping off millions of dollars of taxpayer money and wasting the lives of good young United States of America souls so they can continue to make millions through fraud and deception. It makes me shudder to think about it, because we are a great society and if we allow this type of behavior to stand, if we turn our back and ignore the fraud, well then,, the truth is that we are ready fall like Rome did so long ago.


Click Here to read more on the article from the Dallas News.

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Recent reports show that,  Arnold & Porter LLP has been retained by Accenture to lobby the federal government. They will be using Partner, Jim Turner, a distinguished former congressman, as a lobbyist for Accenture.  This should prove helpful to Accenture, since Jim Turner,  was a ranking member of several Government committees, such as the Government Reform and Oversight Committee’s Government Management, Information, and Technology Subcommittee, when he was in public office as a Congressman.

A few months back, we wrote a post on the Whistleblower Law Blog, about the Government intervening in whistleblower lawsuits against Accenture, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard regarding kickback payments to federal consultants for government technology contracts.

It will be interesting to see if the new alliance with Arnold & Porter LLP helps Accenture in the whistleblower lawsuit.  Time will tell... 

Click here to read more on this from an Associated Press article.

The Whistleblower Law Blog is presented as a service of the Private Law Firm, LaBovick & LaBovick, P.A., Civil Justice Prosecutors. LaBovick & LaBovick, P.A. is a Plaintiff's firm that represents whistleblowers in Florida and throughout the nation in qui tam (False Claims Act) litigation.

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Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was elected to the Board of Tenet Healthcare and will be paid $474,500 for 13 days of work per year as a member of the board. That equates to $36,500 per day. 

Great job in a company that is consistently defrauding the USA of its tax dollars.

Tenet has been involved in with the federal government on charges of fraud, false claims and over-billing Medicare, over the past 13 years.

The Department of Justice stated that Tenet would only be required to pay back $900 million of the $1.7 billion stolen, because of  their "inability to pay."  Not a bad settlement for Tenet Healthcare.

Click Here to read more on the Jeb Bush Tenet Board appointment  from Blogger and columnist, Shelley Lewis, of the Huffington Post and from columnist Brett Arends of Street.com

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Congratulations to the Corporate Crime Reporter for celebrating twenty years in reporting corporate crime.  They launched their inaugural issue in 1987 and featured A rising star in the U.S. Attorney's  Southern District of New York Office, Republican Presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani.  At the time, he had his hands full with prosecuting white collar criminals such as Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and Mark Rich.

According to the Corporate Crime Reporter, corporate crime is all about power politics. The corporate crime game is a bi-partisan affair – it is played the same by Democrats and Republicans. Eliot Spitzer, the former Attorney General of New York, prosecuted corporate crime to achieve higher office. As Governor of New York, Spitzer is now making nice with Wall Street.

Taking a few notes from David Letterman, the Corporate Crime Reporter came up with the Top 20 things you should know about corporate crime. 

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I came across an interesting post today on the blog site of Eric Turkewitz, Esq. (author of newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog) on the ban of contingency fees for government attorneys. Although it is a blog dedicated to Personal Injury , Attorney Turkewitz raised some valid points on justice for taxpayers. He stated that " any government contract is subject to potential problems, a subject often seen with military and construction contracts. At least with contingency fees the taxpayers won't have to lay out any money, and recovery will only come if the suit is successful. This will cost the taxpayers in the long run, with higher expenses and lower recoveries."

President Bush's  Executive Order on contingency fees legal and expert witness services provided to or on behalf of the United States, really gives us food for thought. Whose interest are they looking out for? The public or someone else? Yes, the emphasis appears to be on protecting the American taxpayer, but does it have some underlying hidden agenda? Only time will tell.

The order adresses contingency fee attorneys, but it does not put any caps on private counsel being paid at an hourly rate. Maybe because, typically these attorneys are being paid by large corporations instead of the average taxpayer. The order should address both sides of the issue, not punish one and completely avoid the other. Time will tell if this proves to be helpful to the average taxpayer. I am not holding my breath.

Let's hope this new Executive Order does not hinder the process for whistleblowers and success in the prosecution of qui tam fraud.

Click Here to read the Executive Order that was signed last week, May 16, 2007.

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