Curt Verschoor on Ethics

CHAPTER 9WHISTLEBLOWING

Whistleblowing Reaches Center Stage

Whistleblowing continues to emerge as an important tool in uncovering wrongdoing and prosecuting or punishing offenders. Several recent court cases have been settled successfully based on whistleblowing efforts, and advocacy groups and government regulators in both the United States and the United Kingdom took additional steps toward supporting whistleblowers.

The latest progress comes from the U.S. courts system. In the span of a few weeks, a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former University of California-Irvine (UCI) professor and anesthesiologist who blew the whistle on illegal practices resulted in an agreement by the California Board of Regents to pay $1.2 million to the United States. In Alaska, an employee was granted a settlement of $3.5 million in a whistleblower retaliation case after suing his former employer for wrongful termination. And in Maine, a security worker was awarded more than $200,000 in damages and attorney fees for wrongful termination in a whistleblowing case.

During this same time, several Texas healthcare companies agreed to pay $2.3 million to settle civil allegations that they engaged in false or fraudulent conduct by double billing the Texas Medicaid program, among others. In Florida, a nonprofit hospital repaid nearly $3 million it received from overbilling the government before the matter came up in federal court. In New York, a former employee of celebrity tailor Mohanbhai Ramchandani ...