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

On July 14, 2012, the New York Times issued an article that uncovered a U.S. government secret spying program that targeted a group of whistleblowers working for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The government program that the story uncovered is illegal. It shows how high government officials used a spy program that intended to undermine federal employees’ rights to lawfully report significant health threats and concerns to Congress, law enforcement officials and the American people.

Stephen M. Kohn, the Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center and the head attorney for the FDA whistleblowers stressed that these employees do not give up their First or Fourth Amendment rights while holding government positions. Kohn stated that it is in fact more important for government workers to make note of wrongdoing in order to expose crimes, misconduct, corruption and wasted taxpayer dollars. 

In reference to the news article, Stephen M. Kohn also stated: “We hope that the revelations in today's New York Times will mark a turning point in the battle to stop the retaliatory surveillance of whistleblowers who risk their careers to report misconduct.”

Mr. Kohn hopes that the individuals responsible for attempting to prevent FDA agents from uncovering serious health and safety violations will be punished.

Find the New York Times article that started it all here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/us/fda-surveillance-of-scientists-spread-to-outside-critics.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

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In Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2012, the Privacy Act case of former U.S. prosecutor Richard Convertino was reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. This Privacy Act case accused the Bush Administration of deliberately leaking illegal information that was used to attack and tarnish the reputation of Mr. Convertino. The Court of Appeals’ decision now allows Richard Convertino to continue his research in order to figure out which current and/or former Justice Department employees went against the Privacy Act and attacked Mr. Convertino.

Richard Convertino blew the whistle on former Attorney General Ashcroft due to his poor handling of terrorist prosecutions in 2003. Despite being a former award-winning prosecutor who led many terrorism cases at the Department of Justice, Department of Justice officials sought revenge and leaked untrue and damaging information about Mr. Convertino to The Detroit Free Press. Mr. Convertino subsequently made a Privacy Act complaint in an attempt to oust the individual(s) who leaked the false information about him. 

Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center, spoke about Richard Convertino’s case:

“The Justice Department’s policy of criminally investigating whistleblowers who ‘leak’ information, while at the same time aggressively defending its own ‘leakers,’ is hypocritical. In Mr. Convertino’s case, the Justice Department intentionally leaked information to destroy the reputation of the distinguished prosecutor who had the courage to challenge the Attorney General’s conduct in the ‘War on Terror.’ Moreover, the Justice Department has, for years, aggressively stood in the way of Mr. Convertino’s attempts to discover which official(s) retaliated against him.”

This case reversal is seen as a significant blow to the U.S. Department of Justice’s “War on Whistleblowers” and will hopefully result in reform regarding the double standard in the treatment of government “leakers.”

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There is no doubt that whistleblowers are changing America for the better. Just last week a new Act was signed to help homeowners who were the victim of malicious bank persecution trying to steal them of their home. Further, the US Attorney’s office recently announced a multi-state government settlement with five of the largest banking institutions to make up for their foreclosure abuses which caused the financial meltdown in the American Economy over the last three years.

The key to these settlements was not the victims. Due to the culture of our society the victims here are portrayed as wrongdoers, so we needed industry insider’s to gather the information necessary to take down these huge financial institutions. Without the insider’s information we would have never had proof of how the giant banking industry scammed the system and stole from homeowners and all taxpayers.

Thankfully, a few employees did the right thing. Most of them lost their jobs and will be shunned in the industry for many years to come. However, what was happening was almost criminal. We are still fighting with one of these institutions that foreclosed on a couple when they never missed a payment. After 18 months of litigation and going through hell, the bank still will not admit to wrongdoing. We will see what becomes of our suit in the near future after this settlement.

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At the present time politicians wonder “Why are we so hated?” They sit in total befuddlement about why they are “So poorly regarded.” Basically, politicians are about as loved and trusted as snakes, alligators, used car salesman and ambulance-chasing-low-rent lawyers. But then you get stuff like New York congressman Michael Grimm’s new bill that gives Wall Street and big corporations the right to rip off Americans and not have to worry about Whistleblowers any longer! Of course, the rest of the politicians are lining up to pass the bill because big business and Wall Street needs a little legal protection from being called out for ripping off America.

The Grimm Act, which is listed as House Bill 2483, is being called the “Whistleblower Improvement Act” and was written and created to take down the corporate whistleblower protections we finally have in the United States. It is basically a bill to stop Whistleblowing! America needs to read this bill and write their congressperson to stop being a corporate lackey and vote against the bill.

The bill creates a loophole in the two most important whistleblower laws to come out over the last 50 years. The first is the Dodd-Frank Act, which reformed Wall Street, and the second is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which reformed corporate America and their creative accounting departments and led to things like Enron and World Com!

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a busy agency. They cannot investigate every company in America. However, when they receive a tip or a report from an insider, they are able to quickly identify the wrongdoers and bring them to justice. The Grimm Act will undermine the SEC’s ability to take action on those tips.

Under the new law, the SEC would be required to put the wrongdoers on NOTICE and warn them that their company is a suspect. Do you think that may “tip them off,” so they cover their tracks? I DO! This is the same thing as telling the police to warn a drug dealer they are about to come over and arrest him and ask him to “not destroy the drugs and evidence”! Law enforcement cannot be effective in this environment, and the American people deserve better legislation than this corporate protectionist bill.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has offered awards totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to employee whistleblowers who reported wrongdoing at their companies. Based on these whistleblowers' information, 220 companies were brought to justice in 2011. The employee reports resulted in the federal government's recovery of billions of dollars. These reports had been made over the past few years to the SEC and the companies' internal compliance programs.

The list of companies forced to repay the federal government is an impressive one. It includes Dell Inc., Qwest Communications, Citigroup, UBS Financial Services, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan, Deloitte and Touché, and General Electric Company.

Click here for the full list of companies.

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