In recent years, the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) has called on the Government to abandon its plans to criminally prosecute individuals behind pharmaceutical fraud schemes. For example, in a letter to Eric Blumberg, Deputy Chief for Litigation in the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel, WLF complained that increased criminal prosecution of pharmaceutical executives could “adversely affect the nation’s healthcare delivery system by providing industry executives little incentive to continue working in the pharmaceutical sector.”

False Claims Act whistleblowers have proven especially effective in identifying wayward executives and restoring ethical business practices. Indeed, in just the past five years, whistleblowers played key roles in the prosecution of pharmaceutical fraud cases that have returned over $10 billion to US Treasury.

Some of these successful qui tam actions were brought by senior manager-relators who saw their companies hijacked by fellow-senior managers. Oftentimes, these relators stood up and raised concerns, but the wayward mastermind-senior managers ignored their pleas. Indeed, too often in the business world, senior managers develop a bad case of tunnel vision, which prevents them from seeing the value of their colleagues’ objections and recommendations. When this happens, the corporation veers off course. If this corporate detour happens at the hands of a purposeful mastermind, the government now has an increased interest in using criminal actions against that individual.

More information for potential whistleblowers is located at the Nolan Auerbach & White website.