Lincare Settlement Yields Large Whistle-Blower Payday

National medical oxygen supplier Lincare recently settled Medicare fraud allegations for $20 million, a significant, though not earth-shattering, False Claims Act settlement.

The settlement was more remarkable, however, for the unusually high portion that went to the whistleblowers and their counsel, $11 million of the total settlement.

That’s 55 percent of the total settlement amount, which is far above the 30 percent ceiling provided in the FCA’s award-sharing provision.

Ex-President of Brazil Sentenced to Nearly 10 Years in Prison for Corruption

The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was found guilty of corruption and money laundering on Wednesday and sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison, a stunning setback for a politician who has wielded enormous influence across Latin America for decades.

The case against Mr. da Silva, who raised Brazil’s profile on the world stage as president from 2003 to 2010, stemmed from charges that he and his wife illegally received about $1.1 million in improvements and expenses from a construction company for a beachfront apartment.

In exchange, prosecutors said, the company was able to obtain lucrative contracts from Petrobras, the state-controlled oil giant. read more »

'Car Wash' probe upending Brazilian politics - Explained

HOW DID IT START?

Launched in March 2014, the "Operation Car Wash" probe began as an investigation into money laundering led by police and prosecutors of the southwestern state of Parana. It started a few miles away from Brazil's Congress when gas station owner and black-money dealer Carlos Habib Chater was arrested. Investigators discovered Chater was doing business with convicted money launderer Alberto Youssef, who had bought a Range Rover for Paulo Roberto Costa, a former executive at Petrobras, the mammoth state oil company. Yousseff and Costa eventually reached plea bargains that opened windows onto an immense graft scheme.

HOW DID THE SCHEME WORK?

Prosecutors say executives of major construction companies such as Odebrecht, OAS and Andrade Gutierrez effectively formed a cartel that decided which firms would be awarded Petrobras contracts, often worth billions of dollars, and how over-priced each deal would be. The padded prices were used to pay off dozens of politicians and Petrobras executives, investigators say. read more »

New S.E.C. Chairman Pledges to Look After Ordinary Investors

In his first public speech as the nation’s top securities cop, Walter J. Clayton sought on Wednesday to send a message that he would not shy away from looking out for the interests of mom-and-pop investors.

But the new Securities and Exchange Commission chairman offered few specific policy recommendations in his roughly 25-minute speech, beyond calling for the creation of an advisory board to review transparency in the bond market and a continued crackdown on stock swindles.

The nomination of Mr. Clayton, a former Sullivan & Cromwell partner, by President Trump to be chairman of the S.E.C. drew criticism from many Democrats on Capitol Hill and investor advocates because his legal experience largely has come from representing big corporate clients.

Critics said Mr. Clayton’s professional experience doing corporate work for big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs Group and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, might cause him to put the interests of corporate America before those of ordinary investors. read more »

McKinsey turns on its own as explosive SA-Gupta graft scandal erupts

A corruption scandal that has pushed the South African economy to the edge and heightened social tensions appears to finally have claimed its first McKinsey scalp. McKinsey, a global consultancy firm, is caught up in the worst corruption scandal ever in democratic South Africa3. The McKinsey name was highlighted in an investigation into corrupt deals involving the controversial Gupta-linked Trillian Capital Partners. At the weekend, it emerged that McKinsey has suspended one individual. It’s a case of too little, too late for many South Africans who ponder why McKinsey and other companies have taken so long to take a stand against the corrupt and captured within their own ranks.

In America, company bosses can go to jail for corruption anywhere in the world. Yet, global consultancy firm McKinsey has taken some time to digest the news that its team in South Africa is at the centre of a corruption scandal that is threatening to derail the fledgling democracy. read more »