Armed Mexicans Were Smuggled In to Guard Border Wall, Whistle-Blowers Say

NY TIMES

In a complaint unsealed on Friday, whistle-blowers working on President Trump’s wall said that contractors were illegally bringing in Mexican guards to protect construction sites.

S.L.S., a primary builder of Mr. Trump’s wall, has been awarded contracts worth more than $1.4 billion for work on multiple parts of the border. With those funds, the company is said to have allowed its subcontractor, Ultimate Concrete, to hire armed Mexicans and facilitate illegal border crossings that the president has worked to shut down.

The false claims act complaint was filed in the Southern District of California, allowing the federal government to investigate the allegations while they remained sealed and to decide whether to pursue the case. The Justice Department notified the court last week that it would not intervene in the case, prompting a judge to unseal the allegations. Federal law allows the whistle-blowers to continue to pursue the case “in the name of the United States” read more »

McKinsey Issues a Rare Apology for Its Role in OxyContin Sales

NY TIMES

Facing mounting pressure about its role in the opioid crisis, McKinsey has taken the unusual step of acknowledging that its work with Purdue Pharma fell short of its standards and vowed a full internal review of its actions, including the possible destruction of documents.

Criticism of the world’s most prestigious consulting firm has intensified since The New York Times reported last month that McKinsey had discussed ways for Purdue to “turbocharge” sales of its drug OxyContin, proposing that it pay distributors rebates for overdoses linked to the pills they sold. Lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — have called for McKinsey to be investigated, and a prominent physician employed by the firm said executives who knew of this work should resign. read more »