18 years later, Florida whistleblower case on Nigeria sales may go to Supreme Court

s been 18 years since Robert Purcell filed a multimillion-dollar whistleblower lawsuit against his former employer, MWI Corp., and now he's waiting to see if the Supreme Court will hear the case.

Purcell, 82, has accused the Florida company of fraud connected to $28 million in public money used to pay a Nigerian agent to help the company sell water pumps to the African nation.

The case is one of the longest-running whistleblower lawsuits ever, but countless hours and more than 500 legal filings haven't gotten the United States any closer to a decision on a key question: What represents a normal payment to a foreign official to do business in their country?

In the early 1990s, MWI had received eight loans totaling $74 million from the federal government's Export-Import Bank to bankroll its Nigerian projects. A third of that money wound up in the hands of one man in Nigeria who helped the company arrange its deals. read more »

SEC cracks down on severance agreements that deter whistleblowing

For the second time in less than a week, U.S. securities regulators on Tuesday filed civil charges against a company for inserting language into its severance agreements that prevents outgoing employees from reaping the benefits of government whistleblower awards.

Shayne Stevenson, an attorney at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP who represents whistleblowers, said he expects companies will try new tactics over time to give themselves legal cover, while still trying to silence whistleblowers.

"As someone who has seen these contracts evolve since last year’s settlement with KBR, we have seen ever more devious ways that corporations try to undermine the Dodd-Frank whistleblower program," he said. read more »

Ex-Perella Banker Convicted in Insider-Trading Scheme

Jurors found a former Perella Weinberg Partners LP banker guilty in a major victory for prosecutors worried a recent appeals court ruling had tied their hands in fighting insider trading.

Sean Stewart, 35, tipped his father off on mergers he learned about at Perella Weinberg and previously at JPMorgan Chase & Co. In convicting Stewart on all nine counts, the jurors rejected claims that he’d been betrayed by his father, who lied to him about trading off inside information.

The conviction signals that prosecutors haven’t been totally hobbled by a 2014 appeals court ruling that requires more from the government to prove insider-trading. After that decision, reversing the trial conviction of two traders, prosecutors dropped charges against a dozen others. read more »

Couple to spend years in prison for forging diagnostic tests

A Rockaway couple will spend years in federal prison after being sentenced Tuesday for forging physicians' signatures on at least 10,500 MRIs, ultrasounds, echocardiograms and other diagnostic tests that the physicians never saw. 

Kirtish N. Patel, 54, and his wife, Nita K. Patel, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge William H. Walls, who was appalled at the scheme.

"I am still mystified and, in a certain sense, frightened by the crime that you and your husband committed," Walls told Nita Patel. "The risk that you imposed on people who had done you no wrong... is frightening and scary." read more »

CFTC Charges Mirko “Mick” Schacke and his Nevada-based Company TradeMasters USA, LLC with Fraud and Failing to Register with the CFTC

CFTC Alleges Schacke and his Company TradeMasters Fraudulently Solicited at Least $155,626 from at Least 36 Investors 

The CFTC’s Complaint alleges that, from June 2013 to the present, Schacke and TradeMasters have fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $155,626 from at least 36 individuals to purchase TradeMasters’ automated futures trading software that Defendants sold for as little as $1,500 and as much as $20,000. According to the Complaint, the Defendants made numerous misrepresentations to investors, including on TradeMasters public website and on YouTube videos, to induce them to purchase the software. Schacke and TradeMasters allegedly made false statements to customers that they would make large profits from using the software. Specifically, the Complaint alleges, they claimed that at least one customer earned 300% in just three months, and that most users of the software generate a monthly income of $5,000 to $10,000. read more »

2 Whistleblowers Look To Kick A 3rd From $18M FCA Deal

Two whistleblowers who reached an $18 million False Claims Act settlement with UnitedHealth Group affiliate OptumHealth urged a Colorado federal court Tuesday to disqualify a third whistleblower, arguing that her later suit is blocked by the first-to-file bar.

As Sharlene Rice’s complaint against Evercare LLC, a UnitedHealth Group Inc. unit now known as OptumHealth LLC, didn’t feature any claims to differentiate it from a suit brought two years earlier by Terry Lee Fowler and Lyssa Towl, Rice shouldn’t be allowed to partake in the whistleblowers’ settlement share, Fowler and Towl said. The court never had jurisdiction over Rice’s case because it at all times was blocked by the first-to-file bar, the earlier whistleblowers said. read more »