THE LAWSUIT VS. WA STATE APPLE GROWERS

Hagens Berman successfully represented physician Dr. Robert Chinnapongse in his qui tam lawsuit against US WorldMeds LLC regarding violations of the False Claims Act. Our client challenged the company’s off-label promotion activities and provision of illegal kickbacks to medical providers in return for the use of their injectable products.

Hagens Berman successfully represented market structure and electronic trading expert Haim Bodek in his SEC whistleblower matter against the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and two affiliated financial exchanges. The SEC’s enforcement action resulted in a $14,000,000 penalty against the NYSE exchanges. This penalty tied the record-setting exchange penalty paid by BATS Global Markets Inc., the financial exchange penalized previously by the SEC for unlawful conduct committed by exchange Direct Edge Holdings LLC, which BATS had acquired.

Hagens Berman successfully represented a whistleblower who brought allegations to the SEC that a leading accounting and audit firm, Grant Thornton LLP, ignored red flags signaling fraud risk while conducting deficient audits of a publicly-traded company our client blew the whistle on. That company and its leadership were subject to an ongoing SEC enforcement action for improper accounting and other practices. 

The complaint centered on SOS’s purported recent entry into the bitcoin mining business. For example, on Jan. 21, 2021, SOS claimed to have purchased over 15,000 mining rigs from HY International Group New York (“HY”) for $20 M, and a month later, claimed that 5,000 mining rigs had already gone live.

The complaint alleged that, in truth, SOS was a fraudulent stock promotion scheme that has concealed related party transactions, and has misrepresented the type and/or existence of bitcoin mining rigs SOS claimed to have purchased earlier this year.

On Nov. 6, 2005, sixteen-year-old Colin Buchanan was victim to a catastrophic rollover car crash which left him permanently paralyzed from the chest down, meaning he will never walk again. The vehicle's driver was impaired and speeding.

In January of 2007, Hagens Berman’s client, Scott Harris, was riding his bicycle from his home on Bainbridge Island to his workplace at Third Avenue South and South Bennett Street in Seattle, Washington. Scott was taking every safety precaution as a bicyclist in traffic, and had operating lights on the front and back of his bicycle, as well as on his backpack.

In August of 2006, Hagens Berman filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Utah families following tragic and egregious oversight by the Washington State Department of Corrections that led to a released inmate committing rape, robbery, murder, burglary and more, leaving the lives of two women and their families’ lives forever changed.

Hagens Berman represented Marcell Benoit in a case of extreme nursing home negligence. Mr. Benoit suffered falls, pressure ulcers of the highest stage of severity, and was found in soiled garments. His room nearly caught on fire, and his emergency call button had been disconnected.

THE VALDEZ SPILL AND EXXON’S NEGLIGENCE

On March 24, 1989, a single-hulled oil tanker called the Exxon Valdez crashed into a reef off the coast of Alaska around midnight. The damaged ship proceeded to spill 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. At the time, it was the worst oil spill in U.S. history.