Author Archives: Staff

News Corp. has established an internal whistleblower system in the form of a 24-hour “alertline,” which is meant for employees to report company violations. This action comes in the aftermath of the News of the World incident that involved Murdoch employees bribing police officers to obtain protected documents. The new hotline will also ensure that whistleblowers be protected from retaliation.

Read more at: http://www.inquisitr.com/148916/news-corp-sets-up-internal-whistleblower-hotline/

The chairman of a Senate consumer-protection panel has called on the DOJ and the Department of Veterans Affairs to release any internal investigations regarding the lawsuit accusing 13 major banks of defrauding veterans from hundreds of millions of dollars with illegal fees to refinance home loans. Chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection Panel Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) states, “We learned that abuses of veterans may run even deeper than we previously knew.”
Read more at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2016429296_realvets09.html

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington has filed a false claims case against George Peterson, Vice President of Kennewick Industrial & Electrical Supply Inc. The U.S. alleges that Peterson engaged in kickback and fraud schemes, which led to defrauding the Department of Energy of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 
Read more at: http://www.keprtv.com/news/local/131023563.html

The U.S. Government has yet to decide whether it will join the $835 million lawsuit against Huntington Ingalls. The suit, filed more than a year ago, was brought under the False Claims Act in the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.. The complaint alleges that Huntington improperly spent the Hurricane Katrina relief funds given by the Government to instead cover costs related to shipbuilding contracts.
Read more at: http://www.dailypress.com/business/ports/dp-nws-huntington-ingalls-false-claims-20110929,0,5138266.story

Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. will pay $42 million in its settlement regarding Medicare fraud. According to the charges Hill-Rom billed for extended periods “without making any reasonable effort to determine if the patients for whom it submitted the claims continued to meet Medicare conditions for payment.” The whistleblowers will receive $8 million in rewards, announced the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Read more at: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2011/09/28/hill-rom-to-pay-42m-fraud-settlement.html?s=print