Whistleblower Attorneys & False Claims Act Lawyers
Whistleblower attorneys and False Claims Act Lawyers are constantly finding cases of corporate greed that put our government, and taxpayers, on the hook for a company’s desire for more profits. In some unfortunate instances, our environment suffers the worst penalty.
A recent documentary by PBS and ProPublica.org details the results of an intensive investigation into the culture and practices at BP leading up to the worst oil spill in U.S. History, as well as several environmental disasters before it.
The expose discusses the abysmal safety record of BP since the company began its fervent growth in 1995 to become the third largest non-nationalized oil company in the world today. Among its competitors and even those who produce more oil, BP has a far worse record of monitoring health, safety, and the environment.
In the case of BP, the investigation found that the company put profits before human and environmental safety for decades despite the alarms from its own workers, or hired inspectors who weren’t even qualified to check for maintenance issues. There were also many situations where EPA officers felt the company was intentionally misleading them and could not be trusted.
Whistleblower law expert attorney Riley Allen sees many parallels in the BP case to companies in the healthcare or defense industry who don’t seem concerned with following the law when it comes to increasing profits.
"If you consider the long-standing culture of ignoring safety and covering up problems employed by BP, if safety issues, God forbid, get in the way of making money, you have a disaster waiting to happen....just like it did with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. And, yet, there are those who say these industries need no regulation.." adds Allen.
The False Claims Act, or Whistleblower Law, was enacted in the 1860s but has recently become one of the best tools for monitoring and combating corporate fraud on our government and taxpayers. Many people don’t know, however, that whistleblowers can also come forward with evidence of safety violations, breaches in compliance contracts and false records of funds spent on maintenance.
In the case of companies that have supply contracts with the federal government, whistleblowers may also be entitled to a portion of the funds they help recover by exposing corporate fraud.
