Getnick & Getnick LLP, along with the New York Attorney General’s Office, has secured a settlement in a groundbreaking whistleblower case against National Grid, a utility company that provides natural gas and electricity to homes and businesses in New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, as well as electrical services in other areas of the Northeast….
SEC Whistleblower Program Reaches $1B Milestone
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has announced that it has now paid more than $1 billion to whistleblowers since the inception of the SEC’s whistleblower program. SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that the announcement “underscores the important role that whistleblowers play in helping the SEC detect, investigate, and prosecute potential violations of the…
HHS OIG Announces Focus on Telehealth Fraud
At a recent conference, leaders from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS OIG”) announced areas of enforcement priority for the agency. HHS OIG’s assistant inspector general of legal affairs, Lisa Re, explained that the agency is “working hard to assess how telehealth utilization changed during the…
Senators Introduce Amendments to False Claims Act
A bipartisan group of Senators – including Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dick Durbin (D. Ill.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Pat Leahy (D-Vt), and John Kennedy (R-La.) – have introduced new amendments to the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”). The Amendments cover four key issues relating to the scope of the FCA. First, the amendments would…
President Biden Signs Bill to Fund CFTC Whistleblower Program
President Biden has signed into law legislation passed by Congress in June that would temporarily set up a new account to fund operations of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) whistleblower program. The CFTC’s whistleblower program, created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is funded by money the agency collects in enforcement penalties. Prior…
Supreme Court Declines to Review Seventh Circuit Decision Concerning Standard of Review for Government-Requested Dismissals in FCA Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied review of United States ex rel. Cimznhca, LLC v. UCB, Inc., 970 F.3d 835 (7th Cir. 2020), a decision from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that granted the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to dismiss a False Claims Act (“FCA”) action over the Relator’s objection. Under the FCA, the government can move to dismiss an action over the relator’s objection…
Senators Introduce Bill to Strengthen IRS Whistleblower Program
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore) have introduced the IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act to strengthen the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) Whistleblower Awards Program. That program has enabled the IRS to collect over $6 billion from wealthy individuals and businesses caught evading taxes. The proposed law includes various measures to bolster the IRS’s…
Partner Lesley Ann Skillen Appears on Fraud in America Podcast
G&G Partner Lesley Ann Skillen recently appeared on the Fraud in America podcast alongside former client Cheryl Eckard Meads. G&G represented Ms. Meads in a whistleblower case against pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline that led to the drug company agreeing to pay the government $750 million to settle civil and criminal charges that it manufactured and sold…
New York Legislature Strengthens Whistleblower Law
The New York State Legislature has approved a new law that would strengthen the New York False Claims Act (“NYFCA”) to penalize wealthy taxpayers and corporations that purposefully fail to file tax returns. The companion bills that passed the Senate (S. 4730) and Assembly (A. 2543) would close a loophole in which individuals and corporations…
Attorney General Garland Announces COVID-19 Fraud Task Force
U.S. Attorney Merrick B. Garland has directed the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to establish a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. According to DOJ, the Task Force “will work closely with [DOJ’s] interagency partners to share information and insights gained from prior enforcement experience, in order to reduce the potential threat to the American people and…