False Claims Act Retaliation In 2021

A corporate whistleblower can create more financial, organizational, and reputational damage to an employer by using the federal False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. § 3729-33, than by using any other "whistleblower" law. While the FCA contains no requirement that the whistleblower be an employee to create the damage, most FCA whistleblowers are employees, and almost all of them bring the problem to their management or human resources department before they suffer an adverse employment action. Management often does not hear the whistle blowing when the damage is still avoidable.

Take the case of the pharmaceutical representative who reported to his management in 2010 that illegal kickbacks were tainting the sale of some of the company's blockbuster drugs. Management declined to act on his report and discouraged him from further reporting. Ten years later, the United States Department of Justice announced that the whistleblower lawsuit the pharmaceutical representative