Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

Today, the New York City Council will vote on three whistleblower laws. I had the opportunity to testify about these three bills on April 16th this year before the Committee on Governmental Affairs. The NWC supports the NYC Council's efforts to improve whistleblower protections.

Proposed Int. No. 479-A requires city contractors and subcontractors to post a notice informing employees about their whistleblower rights. Knowledge of existing whistleblower laws is essential in encouraging employees to report fraud.

The NWC strongly supports Proposed Int. No. 816-A, which extends protections under New York City's Whistleblower Law to employees of city contractors and subcontractors.

Proposed Int. No. 828-A is a good first step in making the New York City False Claims Act more effective in detecting and deterring fraud. We look forward to working with the Council in the future to continue improving the Act to ensure accountability of city contractors.

If you would like to know more about these three bills check out the audio from the NYC Committee hearing or my written testimony.

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This Monday, April 16, 2012, NWC Director of Advocacy & Development Lindsey Williams will testify before the New York City Council in support of strengthening whistleblower protections included in proposed legislation, including the local False Claims Act. The hearing will commence at 10:00am in the 16th Floor Committee Room, 250 Broadway, New York, NY.

The City Council will broadcast a live webcast of the hearing.

New York is one of the few cities that has passed its own local False Claims Act in addition to state and federal versions of the law.  The local law is up now up for reauthorization, with proposed amendments that would update the definition of an “original source” and also increase the whistleblower’s share of the recovery.

In addition, Council Member Dan Garodnick has sponsored two bills that expand whistleblower rights. His first bill extends whistleblower protection to employees of city contractors, and his second bill requires city contractors to post information about whistleblower protections included in the local, state, and federal False Claims Acts.

Council Member Gardodnick will discuss the bills and the hearing in more detail during an interview on Honesty Without Fear, live this Tuesday, April 17, 2012, at 1:00pm.

We’ll post a round-up of the hearing here on on the Whistleblower Protection Blog, so stay tuned.

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New York City is inserting notices into 240,000 paychecks this week to encourage employees to report frauds against the City.  The notices inform City employees about the False Claims Act (FCA) which provides whistleblowers with a percentage of the government's recovery against fraudulent claimants. New York City, Chicago and Washington (DC) are the only cities with "Little FCAs" that take advantage of a federal amendment that gives state and local governments a share of federal fraud recoveries in their jurisdictions.  By enacting comparable local legislation, the local government can share in the millions of dollars recovered every year by the federal government. The National Whistleblower Center has an interactive map showing that 26 states have Little FCAs and 24 do not.

Epoch Times reports that the NYC payroll insert is the initiative of council member David Yassky. Mr. Yassky told the paper, “This effort to raise awareness of the False Claims Act will help us go after contractors who defraud the taxpayers, and ensure dollars are going toward helping middle class and working class people through these difficult economic times.”

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The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a writ of certiorari in the case of Eisenstein v. New York. Eisenstein is a qui tam action brought by municipal employees in New York City. The complaint makes a rather unique argument, alleging that NYC is depriving the federal government of tax revenue by requiring city employees who are non-city residents to pay "a fee equivalent to the municipal income taxes paid by resident city employees." The non-resident employees then are permitted to take a federal tax deduction in the amount of the fee, which lowers their amount of taxable income, therefore lowering the amount of tax revenue going to the IRS.

The Supreme Court, however, is not looking at the substantive facts of the case. The Justices will be ruling only on the following issue: Whether a qui tam plaintiff has 30 or 60 days to file an appeal in a False Claims Act case in which the government has not intervened.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4(a)(1)(A) requires all civil appeals to be filed in 30 days unless the United States is a party to the lawsuit, in which case Rule 4(a)(1)(B) extends the appeals deadline to 60 days. The plaintiffs in the Eisenstein case reason that, since the US government always stands to benefit from a qui tam action, then they are a "party" to the case even if they have not chosen to enter into the suit. However, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the Eisenstein case, holding that: 

"...where the United States has declined to intervene in a False Claims action, the United States is not a party to the action...therefore a notice of appeal must be filed in 30 days."

This is an interesting case. We will keep you updated on it's progress and outcome. Briefs are due to be filed by the end of March. See the links below for more information.

 

 

• Second Circuit Opinion
• Petition for Certiorari
• Opposition Brief
  
• Petitioner's Reply Brief

 

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