Whistleblower reward

A Duke lab assistant (or perhaps his lawyers) stands to receive more than $30MM for taking on a powerful university researcher's federally financed research fraud.  He says he tried to get federal prosecutors to handle the matter, but when they refused, he filed a qui tam action in the name of taxpayers.  Under the applicable statute, that means he gets to keep a third of the settlement Duke just agreed to pay.

Makes you wonder how much other research fraud whistleblower money is lying around on the ground.  The hotcoldwetdry money alone, let alone the dietary research slush funds, must be mind-boggling.

3 comments:

douglas said...

Wow, that might just be a small stream coming through a crack in the dike. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Ymarsakar said...

People joked that I was the conspiracy theorist that didn't believe in scientific orthodoxy and consensus, hereby called "common sense authority".

Well, the primary reason is that most of your common sensory authority is full of corruption and stupidity. I don't have to go along to get along, as my research isn't controlled by the feds.

Ymarsakar said...

Lawyers keeping 75% of the damages awarded by the court is pretty scammy.