Whistle While You Work: Protecting Your Organization from Whistleblower Threats

Why Should You Attend:

According to a December 2016 press release from the United States Department of Justice, it recovered over $4.7 billion in fiscal year 2016 from settlements and judgments in whistleblower cases involving fraud or false claims against the government. Of the $4.7 billion recovered, $2.5 billion came from the health care industry, including drug companies, medical device companies, hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, and physicians and $1.7 billion came from the financial industry with recoveries in the area of housing and mortgage fraud. Other major recoveries involved an explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; procurement fraud for knowingly providing defective holographic weapon sites to the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and FBI; for-profit schools that allegedly participated in illegal schemes to secure federally-funded education dollars; and, customs fraud.

Separately, the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the IRS have recovered billions of dollars through tips from whistleblowers.

As illustrated by the DOJ press release, whistleblower actions are a threat to virtually all industries. Potential whistleblowers can be found in all departments and at all levels of an organization – from maintenance workers to the C-Suite. Critically important for attendees is the 2015 “Yates Memo” and the DOJ’s focus on individual accountability for corporate wrongdoing.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• Overview of False Claims Act, Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley, Commodity Exchange Act, and Internal Revenue Code recoveries by industry with most currently available data
• What organizations can do to prevent activity leading to whistleblower threats
• How to mitigate damages from an actual or purported whistleblower
• “Yates Memo” and individual accountability for corporate wrongdoing
• How your attorneys and compliance professionals have different ethical responsibilities, including an overview of the relevant case law

Who Will Benefit:

This webinar is relevant to every industry and department within an organization and it is particularly appropriate for the pharma and medical device industries with some recent high dollar settlements of whistleblower cases in both of these industries. The employees who will benefit include:

• Chief Financial Officers and accountants
• Chief Compliance Officers & compliance professionals
• Chief Technology Officers and IT professionals
• General Counsel and attorneys
• Chief Risk Officers and risk professionals
• Chief Medical Officers
• Physicians
• Chief Sales/Marketing Officers and sales and marketing professionals/representatives
• Chief Human Resources Officers and HR professionals

Christine Zack
Chief Strategy Officer, Mariner Health Central

Christine Zack has served as a senior executive for three national healthcare companies and has held the titles Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer, Associate General Counsel, Vice President and Corporate Counsel. She has served as the department head for the Risk Management Department and worked in the Finance and Legal Departments.

Ms. Zack is also a highly sought-after public speaker with organizations from Washington, DC to Palo Alto, CA engaging her services.

Ms. Zack holds a Juris Doctor from Tulane Law School and a Bachelor of Arts with a double Major in Sociology and Political Science from Dickinson College.

Topic Background:

While Ralph Nader is frequently credited with coining the phrase whistleblower in the 1970’s, informants have been a part of the justice system in the U.S. since at least the Civil War, when the government embraced whistleblower information relating to government contracts. That trend has increased exponentially since then, and it is not expected to slow any time soon. To the contrary, the government has greatly enhanced rewards to whistleblowers in a number of areas and the perception of whistleblowers has turned from that of a snitch to an American hero.

Whistleblowers, both real and purported, have become a part of everyday business life. Failing to prepare for complaints about illegal and/or unethical activities, and ignoring or minimizing these complaints is a recipe for disaster.

Follow us :