DAILY WHISTLEBLOWER HEADLINES:

Justices' Snub Didn't Resolve First-To-File Issue, Judge Says

A Utah federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Tenth Circuit should still weigh whether the False Claims Act's so-called first-to-file rule bars a whistleblower suit over uninspected aircraft gears, saying the U.S. Supreme Court's Monday decision not to review the issue in another FCA case did not resolve a circuit split.

The whistleblowers, two former managers of a Triumph Group Inc. subsidiary who accused the contractor of sending uninspected aircraft gears to the U.S. government, had asked U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball to rethink his order allowing the question of whether the first-to-file bar is jurisdictional to be sent to the appeals court. read more »

Corporate Fraud Demands Criminal Time

We're now getting an idea of just how expensive breaking the law can be. Ten years after Volkswagen executives first decided to cheat emissions tests on some of their diesel models, the company has agreed to pay almost $15 billion to settle claims in the United States.

Volkswagen still faces state and federal criminal investigations in the United States and more around the world; sales of VW cars have collapsed, and the company’s once-sterling reputation has been forever tarnished.

So given the result, why did company executives decide to cheat and what can that tell us about preventing corporate crime in the future?

These are not academic questions. The absence of reliable data makes it difficult to pin down the precise impact of corporate fraud. One recent analysis estimated the annual costs in the United States of just one kind of white-collar crime — corporate securities fraud — at $380 billion.

Fortunately, research on street crime gives us some ideas about corporate crime. There are two fundamental dimensions of deterrence: the certainty of punishment and the severity of punishment. Basically, will I be caught, and if so, how badly will I be punished? read more »