A lawsuit filed by a whistleblower working with the Office of the Inspector General of Pennsylvania against Johnson & Johnson and one of their subsidiaries, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., was recently settled for $158 million.  The case was filed in 2004 after the whistleblower, Allen Jones, discovered the company was putting money into a pharmacist's unregistered account for promoting their anti-psychotic medication, Risperdal.

The whistleblower's discovery led to several claims of fraud against Janssen.  In addition to providing kickbacks to pharmacists, the pharmaceutical manufacturer was found to have improperly and fraudulently marketed Risperdal to Medicaid patients in Texas.  Prescriptions for Medicaid patients in Texas accounted for $579 million out of billions of dollars of revenue the company generated selling the costly drug.

Moreover, Janssen was accused of exaggerating Risperdal's effectiveness and safety.  And, the company allegedly promoted the drug as safe for children, despite not having approval from federal officials.  Jones said after the settlement was announced that Janssen "subverted science and influenced others to betray the people they were supposed to be taking care of."  The whistleblower will receive part of the settlement.

Contact the Houston whistleblower protection lawyers of Ross Law Group at 713-482-6910, if you or someone you know has questions about reporting illegal employer activities.

A KBR Inc. employee working as a heavy truck driver in Iraq recently filed suit against the engineering firm in Harris County.

In the lawsuit, the employee says he reported being subjected to racial slurs on the job in February 2009.  Soon after filing the complaint, supervisors began to critize the whistleblower's work and single him out.  Less than 12 days after investigations into the racial discrimination claims began, the employee was put on a corrective action and was schedule to be terminated.

The whistleblower left his position with KBR due to the retaliation he suffered as a result of reporting racial discrimination.  He is seeking front pay, back pay, benefits, damages, and compensation for lawyer's fees and court costs.

If you have been retaliated against for reporting an illegal workplace practice, contact the Houston whistleblower protection lawyers of Ross Law Group at 800-634-8042 to learn more about your rights.  

Infosys Technologies Ltd. is facing suit after an employee made claims that the company "intentionally violated our visa and tax laws for the purpose of increasing revenues."  Furthermore, the company is accused of staffing many of their projects with illegal employees.  The projects included work at Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart, American Express, and Johnson Control.

The whistleblower lawsuit was filed in February in Alabama Circuit Court.  Currently, federal investigators are looking into the whistleblowers claims.  

The Infosys employee says that he overheard several conversations between Infosys managers in the U.S. and India involving increasing their use of the B1 visa program.  These workers were paid much lower than U.S. salaries and the payments the company made to these workers were not taxed.  

To discuss reporting illegal company or employer practices with an experienced employment attorney, contact the Houston whistleblower protection lawyers of Ross Law Group at 713-482-6910 today.    

A whistleblower protections lawsuit filed against Education Management Corp, or EDMC, was recently expanded when the U.S. Justice Department decided to join in the suit supporting the employee.  Several states are also expected to join in the lawsuit in the near future.

EDMC is the nation's second-largest operator of for-profit collleges.  According to the employee's lawsuit, the company illegally compensated recruiters based on the number of students they helped enroll at the colleges.  Incentive-based compensation is prohibited by the federal government because it is believed to encourage encourage the enrolling of unqualified students.

If you or someone you know has illegal employee activity to report, contact the Houston whistleblower protection attorneys of Ross Law Group at 800-634-8042 to learn more about how we can help you.

A case involving a former Johnson & Johnson employee and whistleblower alleging that the company committed medicaid fraud was recently reopened.  According to court documents, the whistleblower found that J&J was improperly reporting information about their drug prices to government healthcare programs like Medicaid.

The employee, Scott Bartz, originally filed the suit against Johnson & Johnson in 2005.  The suit was ammended in 2007 to say that the company hid information about discounts of drug prices from Medicaid.

Other companies, Omnicare and McKesson, were named as a defendants in the suit for helping the pharmaceutical company.

If you or someone you know has reported an employer violation in Houston, you may need an experienced employment lawyer to make sure your rights as a whistleblower are protected.  Contact the Houston whistleblower protection lawyers of Ross Law Group at 713-482-6910 today to set up an appointment to meet with us today.

Hewlett-Packard recently agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company had violated bidding regulations in the Houston and Dallas school districts for technology contracts.  Inquiries into the company began after a whistleblower suit was filed against them in 2007.

Investigations revealed that Hewlett-Packard aligned with a Houston businessman, Frankie Wong, who was later convicted of bribery.  HP and Wong were accused of paying gratuities and bribing district officials to win bids for their E-rate program.  E-rate is a program created by HP to pay for internet connections in schools and libraries.

HP reportedly paid for district officials' meals, bought them trips and gave them tickets to the 2004 Super Bowl to entice them into giving them the information they needed to secure a contract with the school districts.  

Contact the Houston whistleblower protection lawyers of Ross Law Group at 713-482-6910 if you or someone you know has questions about reporting a legal violation.

Katrina Harper, a former Caldwell County jailer, filed a federal lawsuit in Austin's U.S. District Court against her former employer.  

In May 2009, Harper says she was working the night shift when she witnessed two of the county jail employees engaging in sexual activities.  Harper immediately went to her supervisor and told them what she had seen.  Harper was sent home early that day and two days later was written up for reporting what her supervisor's believed the be a false incident.  She was later demoted to officer from her position as corporal.  

Just months later, Harper received a letter from her employer asking her to disclose information about her ADD disorder.  After sending in the appropriate documentation, Harper was terminated a day later for supposedly not disclosing her medical history in her employment application.  Harper believes that the County is using her medical disability as an excuse to cover up their discrimination.   

If you or someone you know has been punished for whistleblowing, contact the Houston whistleblower protection attorneys of Ross Law Group at 713-482-6910 to learn more about your rights.