Category Archives: Whistleblower News

Matthew Paul Brown, who posed as a fake doctor for two years in Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison. He was charged for health care fraud and wrongful disclosure of patients’ health information. United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “[u]nlike most fraud cases, which endanger the bank accounts and financial soundness of victims, this defendant’s fraud scheme also placed his victims’ health at risk. While posing as a doctor, he treated over 1,100 patients. His crime defrauded those individual victims of the care they deserved, and defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance companies of funds intended and needed for legitimate health care.”

Read more at: http://news.gnom.es/news/fake-doctor-sentenced-for-health-care-fraud-and-criminal-hipaa-violations

Dorchester pharmacist Ernest M. McGee was sentenced to 12 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M Gorton, the DOJ reports. The judge also ordered McGee to pay restitution to Medicaid and to Medicare, in the amounts of $292,635 and $60,037 respectively. McGee worked at Codman Square Pharmacy in Dorchester, which was owned by Amadiegwu Onujiogu, who was also convicted separately of the same crime. According to the claims, McGee paid customers to bring prescriptions to the pharmacy, but would not then dispense medications to them. McGee would then submit claims to Medicaid and Medicare for the prescriptions and their refills.

Read more at: http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/news/2011/December/McGeeErnestSentencingPR.html

Genentech, the San Francisco-based U.S. subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, will pay $20 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit brought in 2003. The suit claims that from 2000 to at least 2002, Genentech “encouraged oncologists and other physicians and medical providers to bill Medicare and other government reimbursement programs for Rituxan for off-label uses.” The suit also states that the company paid kickbacks to doctors and put pressure on sales reps to increase off-label uses.

Read more at: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/biotech/2011/12/genentech-roche-rituxan-whistleblower.html

According to the Sixth PwC global economic survey, whistleblowers are less likely to report wrongdoings taking place in the workplace because of the fear of retaliation. The survey notes that companies could improve whistle-blowing mechanisms by making employees more confident in the systems, assuring them that all channels are available to report crime. PwC forensic services director Trevor White states, “Often it is a junior employee who has to report a senior employee, the whistle-blower is victimized and nothing happens to the person who has committed the crime.”

Read at: http://www.iol.co.za/mercury/whistle-blowers-wary-of-reporting-workplace-crimes-pwc-survey-finds-1.1189268

The U.S. has filed a civil mortgage fraud lawsuit against Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation, its affiliate, Allied Home Mortgage Corporation, Allied President and CEO Jim Hodge, and Executive Vice President Jeanne Stell. Under the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), the U.S. Government seeks damages and civil penalties for hidden misconduct in terms of residential mortgage lending practices. Until now, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has paid $834 million in insurance claims for fraudulent mortgages originated and certified by Allied—which are now in default.

Read more at: http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20111102-3.html