Tagged: Whistleblower

Uncategorized

27 Mar, 2024

Implementation of EU Directive on Whistleblowing 2019/1931 (Part I of II)

By: Daniela Melendez, Associate at The Volkov Law Group and Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Compliance Manager at The Volkov Law Group Since its enactment in 2019, the European Union (“EU”) Directive on Whistleblowing 2019/1931 (“EU Directive”) has required all 27 EU Member States to incorporate certain requirements pertaining to the protection of whistleblowers into their own bodies of national law. The EU Directive alloted 2 years...

General

21 Feb, 2024

Supreme Court’s Unanimous Decision Provides Important Protections for Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblowers

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the case, Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC et al. (February 8, 2024). The Supreme Court’s decision reaffirms an ongoing trend — to protect and encourage whistleblower reporting as a means to enforce proper corporate governance. The European Union’s Whistleblower Directive and new United States whistleblower incentive programs continue to...

General

15 Sep, 2022

False Claims Act Round-Up — DOJ Continues Aggressive Prosecution of Healthcare Fraud

The Biden Administration warned the healthcare industry that it would aggressively prosecute fraud cases. The Justice Department is executing on that promise and doing so with great success. Week after week, we read about False Claims Act settlement with multi-million dollar penalties. We barely hear much about healthcare compliance innovation and strategies — the industry is clearly treading water when it comes to proactive compliance...

General

13 Jul, 2021

Alere Agrees to Pay $38.75 Million to Settle False Claims Act Violations (Part II of V)

Alere, Inc. and its San Diego subsidiary, agreed to pay $38.75 million to resolve False Claims Act charges for billing the Medicare program for defective rapid point-of-care testing devices. Alere sold diagnostic devices knowing that the devices had a materially defective algorithm. During the period 2008 to 2016, Alere sold defective INRatio-blood coagulation monitors used by Medicare patients taking anticoagulant drugs (e.g., warfarin). Blood coagulation...

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26 Apr, 2021

Whistleblower Protections under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020

Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Manager and Compliance Consultant at the Volkov Law Group, re-joins us for a posting on whistleblower protections. Alex can be reached at [email protected]. When Congress overrode former President Donald J. Trump’s veto of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) in January of this year, it simultaneously enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”) into law. AMLA significantly expands upon the...

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5 Nov, 2020

The Long Path to a Whistleblower Recovery: Former CCO Vindicated by Merit Medical Systems False Claims Act Settlement (Part II of II)

Dr. Charles Wolf was the Chief Compliance Officer at Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (“MMS”), who ultimately became the federal whistleblower against MMS alleging violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. Dr. Wolf’s concerns were ultimately vindicated when the Justice Department intervened in support of his complaint. MMS settled the case with DOJ and agreed to pay $18 million. Dr. Wolf received $2.65 million from the settlement under...

General

12 Aug, 2020

Leveraging the EU Whistleblower Directive to Improve Employee Reporting (Part I of II)

Global companies face a number of challenges and a myriad of regulatory obligations. In December 2019, the EU adopted a directive to promote and protect persons who report violations of law. The EU Whistleblower Directive was adopted in response to a series of scandals that were reported by whistleblowers, including the Panama Papers and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. An EU-sponsored study in 2017 reported that...

Uncategorized

6 Aug, 2017

What Happens When Employees Stop Speaking Up?

One of several difficult compliance questions facing companies revolves around reporting of employee concerns. If the number of complaints coming in on a company hotline goes down over time, is corporate misconduct going down or are employees losing trust in the company’s speak up system? These are two diametrically opposite conclusions. Compliance officers have to be realistic and objective when analyzing this question. Misconduct rates...

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23 Mar, 2016

The Telltale Sign of Corporate Culture: Treatment of Whistleblowers

There are many important predictors of corporate culture. Everyone laments the difficult in measuring a company’s culture. There are a few issues, however, that may be inconvertible as a predictor of a corporate culture. How does a company react to a whistleblower? I am sure everyone is saying to themselves – well, we do not have that problem, we are committed to fair treatment of...

General

20 Jan, 2016

How to Keep Your Whistleblower(s) “Happy” (or Satisfied)

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony – Mahatma Gandhi Happiness is an elusive concept – for some. For others who may be more enlightened or lived for years, happiness is a feeling that can be attained by commitment, determination and awareness. My keys to happiness are love, gratitude and empathy. Some people are “content” being...