Friday, February 25, 2005

Former H-P Employee Sues Company for Selling Defective Medical Devices

An Associated Press story featured in mercurynews.com, the Web site of the San Jose Mercury News, reports that the lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco under the state’s False Claims Act. Robert Hindin, a former employee of Agilent Technologies Inc., an H-P spinoff, brought the suit.

The suit seeks damages that could reach the tens of millions of dollars under the provisions of the California False Claims Act. It claims HP engaged in a “scheme to defraud its customers by knowingly selling defective and potentially dangerous medical devices.”

Hindin, who worked for HP as production manager and manufacturing engineer for eight years before being fired in 1997, alleges in court filings that he tried to alert HP executives of “improper practices and repeated life-threatening failures” of several products in 1996. Executives responded with “nothing but hostility and threats,” then fired him after he reported the alleged breaches to the Food and Drug Administration, the lawsuit states.

The full story can be accessed here.

Monday, February 21, 2005

Judge Orders Bank to Pay Virginia Whistle-blower

The former CFO of Cardinal Bankshares, a publicly traded company in Virginia, was awarded almost $65,000 in back pay and more than $100,000 for legal fees by a judge who ruled he was protected by the whistle-blower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  The Roanoke Times reports that David Welch’s case has focused national attention on a small bank in Floyd, Virginia.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Bill Due to Allow New Yorkers to Sue Companies that Defraud City

New Yorkers could sue companies that defraud the city and pocket up to 30 percent of the settlement under a bill that is expected to pass in the City Council, according to the Feb 16, 2005 editions of The New York Post.  However, sources told The Post that Mayor Michael Bloomberg planned to veto the measure because he wants the city to retain control over the lawsuits. 

The New York False Claims Act would allow citizens to sue on behalf of the city on the basis that they, as taxpayers, were defrauded.  The federal government and a dozen states have similar laws.  Currently, only the city can initiate suits against companies that defraud it.

City Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn, who wrote the bill, told The Post that his goal was to prevent the city from being “duped” as often as it is, and estimated that the bill could bring in more than $30 million per year to the city.  “Every jurisdiction that has adopted a false claims act has seen a dramatic upsurge in recoveries from companies that are cheating taxpayers,” he said.

A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg told The Post that criminal investigations conducted by the city could be hindered by false claim acts lawsuits.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Cleveland Clinic Settles Qui Tam Case for $2.7 million

A whistleblower who worked at a now-defunct Florida hospital owned by the Cleveland Clinic will receive $500,000 of the settlement as provided by the False Claims Act. The hospital had been charged with billing Medicare for observation services for patients who did not qualify for the reimbursement. Click here to read the full story.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Qui Tam Cases Possible For Government Propaganda

The flurry of recent revelations of government-funded “journalism” has prompted two Democratic Senators to introduce a law to stop government propaganda. The act would allow citizens to bring qui tam lawsuits on behalf of the United States government when the Department of Justice does not respond. 

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