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Congratulations to our friends at Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto for securing the largest whistleblower award to an individual in history. On September 11, 2012, the National Whistleblowers Center announced the IRS award of $104,000,000 to Bradley Birkenfeld – the whistleblower who exposed a massive tax evasion scheme involving Swiss bank accounts. At the recorded press conference, Attorney Stephen M. Kohn declared: Today, the IRS sent 104 million messages to whistleblowers around the world...

Six months ago state and federal regulators agreed to settle for $25 billion with banks in relation to numerous claims of lending and mortgage foreclosure fraud and abuse. What seemed to be a good deal for the alleged perpetrators of one of the most economically detrimental lending schemes in history has in fact proven to be a great deal for the alleged perpetrators. From March 1 to June 30 138,000 homeowners with distressed properties have received some form of relief. However, that number m...

According to a recent New York Times article, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted an “extraordinary surveillance effort” on its own scientists following “a bitter dispute lasting years between the scientists and their bosses at the F.D.A. over the scientists’ claims that faulty review procedures at the agency had led to the approval of medical imaging devices for mammograms and colonoscopies that exposed patients to dangerous levels of radiation.” The FDA’s Orw...

The exploitation of Florida migrant workers under “‘sweatshop’ conditions, including sub-poverty wages, no right to overtime pay, and no right to organize”sometimes descends into debt bondage and other forms of modern-day slavery. In fact, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy once described the tomato fields of Florida as “ground zero for modern-day slavery.” In the midst of these oppressive conditions, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a grassroots organization in Southwest...

When homeowner Lynn Szymoniak received a mortgage foreclosure complaint, she turned the tables on the foreclosing banks by utilizing her skills as an attorney and fraud detective to investigate tens of thousands of foreclosure documents in other foreclosure cases. After discovering that the foreclosing banks were engaging in pervasive fraud, she brought a False Claims Act lawsuit against the banks on behalf of the federal government. Now, CBS News reports that homeowner Lynn Szymoniak “i...

  Two radiologists at the University of Missouri School of Medicine were fired for falsely billing Medicare according to an Associated Press article. The false medical billing sparked an internal investigation by the University of Missouri and an ongoing federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The internal investigation revealed “that the two doctors falsely said they reviewed X-rays but instead relied solely on resident physicians, a violation of Medicare and hospital rul...

According to a recent Department of Justice press release, 107 doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals were charged with $452 million dollars of fraudulent Medicare billing in a single takedown by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. The health care professionals were accused of fraud-based crimes such as conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, kickback violations, and money laundering relating to “a variety of alleged fraud schemes involving various medical tr...

  The horrendous animal cruelty videos recorded on factory farms by whistleblowers and undercover investigators pose a serious threat to agribusiness profits. As a result, the agribusiness lobby is campaigning to criminalize taking photos and videos of animal cruelty on factory farms and to brand similar activity as eco-terrorism. The effort to demonize the animal rights movement is shared by government agencies like the FBI, which stated that “the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat is the ...

  Lynn Szymoniak, a South Florida attorney and foreclosure fraud victim who successfully challenged the corrupt banking practice of falsifying ownership records (such as notes and assignments) commonly referred to as “robo-signing,” is now being subjected to what she describes as continuing harassment from the very bank she exposed as perpetrating the fraud.   In 2008, Szymoniak’s home went into foreclosure as a result of medical emergencies which drained her income and assets. As a...

BofA is currently receiving a substantial amount of press for a very small pilot program that promises to rent homeowners’ homes back to them instead of foreclosing on the homes. However, the program requires homeowners to be at least two months behind in their mortgage payments to qualify for the program, and fewer than 1000 slots are available in a few select markets. Another ploy to encourage struggling homeowners to default? Maybe. More from the L.A. Times: The "Mortgage to Lease" prog...