Since I started this blog, I’ve heard from a number of self-described whistleblowers who say they wouldn’t have sounded off about fraud, misconduct and other sleazy activity by their employers if they had known how it would mess up their lives. They don’t think the laws meant to protect corporate and government whistleblowers actually work.

The prospect of getting justice through blowing the whistle isn’t helped by the backlog of 900 lawsuits at the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a report this week in the Washington Post. According to the Post, “many of the cases involve the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising health-care payouts, and privatization of government functions — all of which offer rich new opportunities to swindle taxpayers.” But the 75 lawyers who handle such cases are overloaded, and the current backlog could take a decade to clear.

Aided by a Civil War era law called the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can get a percentage of the settlement if their accusations result in companies paying back money to the government. According to the Post, “Among the largest false-claims cases to date are a $650 million settlement earlier this year by drugmaker Merck in connection with an alleged failure to repay Medicaid rebates; a $515 million deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb to cover illegal drug pricing and marketing; and a $98 million agreement with software maker Oracle over pricing.”

Because the False Claims Act involves federal money, many states have adopted their own versions of the law to encourage whistleblowers to turn in those who defraud state agencies. Bills to establish a Minnesota False Claims Act were introduced in the House and Senate this year, as they have in past years, but the bills didn’t go anywhere.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Whistleblowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.