Autonomy, a British software company acquired by Hewlett Packard last year, has been accused of improper accounting procedures by a whistleblower. Whistleblowers in the United States are entitled to a financial reward, courtesy of a new program run by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.  The whistleblowers could receive an award of between 10 and 30 percent of the sanctions collected by the SEC and other U.S. regulators. The allegations amount to over $8 billion dollars which could mean a very …

Identity theft and credit card fraud are running rampant throughout America. Millions of dollars are stolen every year by criminals, who appropriate credit card information and make fraudulent purchases over the telephone. Many of these scam artists reside in foreign continents such as South America and Africa. How, with all of America’s technological advances, do these criminals continue to get away with this?

Large telecommunication companies, such as AT&T, allegedly have the ability to track where these scam artists operate. But …

Rapiscan, a company that produces security scanners, has been suspected of falsifying software tests. The company has a contract worth 90 million dollars with the Department of Homeland Security to replace traditional magnetometers with the highly controversial body-scanning machines.

The machines were designed to screen passengers at airports and aid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents with detecting bombs and weapons. Rapiscan has been accused of manipulating data in privacy tests conducted after several complaints were made by privacy advocates …

A physician in Michigan, Dr. Jonathan Agbebiyi, was sent to federal prison and ordered by a federal judge to repay the government $3,000,000.00 for scamming taxpayers out of millions of Medicare dollars. Dr. Agbebiyi gave rewards such as cash, prescription medication and other gifts to recruit patients for unnecessary neurological exams. Specifically, he recommended nerve conduction studies using electrical stimulation to patients who did not need them. Not only were the neurological tests needless, they were administered by …

In 2011, a certified public accountant tipped off the Internal Revenue Service about a tax lapse his company ignored, and received the first major award granted to a whistleblower by the tax collection bureau. Out of the $20 million in taxes and interest the IRS netted from the delinquent company, the whistleblower received $4.5 million – a 22 percent cut of the taxes recovered. This groundbreaking award came four years, three months, and 18 days after Congress augmented an 1867 …

Subway project suit in its 16th year draws questions about agency oversight.

LOS ANGELES – A 16th birthday is often considered to be a coming of age. But when it’s taxpayer-funded litigation, the age is not so sweet.

Sixteen years ago this month, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority joined a whistle-blower lawsuit in state court against Parsons-Dillingham, a joint contractor venture that helped build the Metro Red Line subway in Los Angeles.

The county transit agency alleges Parsons-Dillingham overbilled taxpayers for …

“Show me a government contract, and I will show you fraud!” This was a statement I made frequently (and only half-jokingly) during my tenure as an assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the Affirmative Civil Enforcement taskforce at the U.S. Department of Justice, where we prosecuted the federal False Claims Act (FCA) exclusively.

Since 1863, the False Claims Act, passed by President Abraham Lincoln and reinforced in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, has been the single most powerful tool U.S. taxpayers have to recover …

Mr. Il Sub Lee and his family were traveling down route I-10 when a black BMW suddenly sped up and cut him off. With little room to maneuver, Lee was forced to swerve onto a dirt path to avoid a collision. Lee lost control of the vehicle causing his SUV to flip over several times before tragically killing Lee’s 3 month old baby girl Geo, along with another passenger in the vehicle. The suspect fled the scene but a truck …

With Gary Lewkovich, DC and Shawn Steel, Esq.

Dr. Lewkovich: Your reputation in the chiropractic community is almost legendary. You have been an ardent supporter of our profession for de cades, assisting in many legal battles, both directly and indirectly. Now, once again, you are offering assistance to chiropractors battling insurance companies on “excess” med pay policy issues. How relevant is this “excess” med pay issue to the chiropractic profession?

Shawn Steel, Esq.: First of all, thank …

by Shawn Steel, Esq., Assistant Professor, Cleveland Chiropractic College, Los Angeles

The Chiropractic community should be concerned about the “Pure No-Fault” initiative which will be on California’s, March 1996 ballot. There are several different features in the initiative that are obviously anti-chiropractic. Despite that, would No-Fault serve a useful social end?

Across the United States No-Fault has shown a persistent theme of failure and deception. Higher rates and fewer benefits for consumers have been the results.

Insurance companies, …