• Sarbanes-Oxley and other Federal and state laws provide protections for whistleblower employees, or those who help detect fraud or abuse in billings to the federal government, by medical practitioners and others under Medicaid, or by governmental contractors. Corrupt practices may also implicate the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Practices Act, or RICO, or State RICO laws.
• Employers and Contractors wishing to avoid such claims, along with avoiding Sarbanes-Oxley noncompliance penalties, which might result in criminal as well as civil penalties, implement compliance programs, which often include, among other things, an employee reporting hotline.
• Enforcement of whistleblower and certain fraud-related laws and regulations may occur through the criminal legal process, and, on the civil side, by an administrative agency process, or through a court action, or lawsuit (which many times may not be filed until an administrative charge has been properly filed and processed). Failure to comply with time limits, sometimes called a statute of limitations, may have adverse ramifications to employers defending against charges and lawsuits, or those asserting employee rights, irrespective of the merits, or lack thereof, of a claim.
• The U.S. Department of Justice or USDOJ has a website with useful information concerning fraud-related issues. The link is:
  • www.usdoj.gov/whatwedo/whatwedo_if.html

JD (Jim) Masur maintains a law practice to provide counseling and proactive guidance, and litigation services concerning various aspects of whistleblower/fraud-related issues.