PPP Fraud: Whistleblower Attorney on Exposing Misuse of COVID-19 Relief Funds

This video features Jason T. Brown, an Employment and Labor Law attorney based in New Jersey.

Attorney Jason Brown | 888-981-0016 | Free Consult | Nationwide

“A lot of these criminals would get away with it if they weren’t so greedy and flashy.”

If you’ve witnessed PPP fraud, i.e. a misappropriation of funds intended to help struggling businesses and individuals in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown, should you report this fraud with the help of a whistleblower attorney?

Whistleblowing is a term used to describe when an employee reports or openly complains about illegal conduct at work, usually by superiors. Recently, whistleblowers have been helping bring to light fraud that is occurring with taxpayer Payroll Protection Program (PPP) dollars intended to support vulnerable businesses and their employees. Instead, business owners and others took advantage of the situation to buy themselves expensive cars and luxury items.

Jason Brown is Senior Litigator and head of the law firm Brown, LLC, based in Jersey City, New Jersey. He helps people throughout the country, and he offers free consultations for anyone curious if they have a valid claim. As a former FBI special agent and legal adviser, he can help point you in the right direction so you don’t make any mistakes and are fully protected in the event that you decide to blow the whistle.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-981-0016 or by submitting a contact form on this page.

Key Takeaways From Jason Brown:

The importance of whistleblowers to assuring proper conduct has resulted in laws designed to protect whistleblowers from retaliation by angry employers and coworkers. With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, these laws are more necessary than ever with fraud becoming increasingly prominent.

Fraud in the healthcare industry is particularly common, especially during the pandemic.

Medicare and Medicaid fraud is a common topic of whistleblowing law and has only become more common since the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020. For example, fraud that used to occur when doctors would charge for an in-office visit when in reality they only spoke to a patient over the phone is now permissible due to the increased need for telemedicine options. This has made detecting this type of fraud trickier to accomplish.

The False Claims Act makes a variety of fraudulent activities “actionable”.

A behavior is considered actionable when it is bad enough or damaging enough to justify a lawsuit. In the wake of the COVID pandemic, fraud is popping up everywhere as people submit false certifications for emergency disaster loans and commit fraud through the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). The PPP is designed to offer payroll support to hurting businesses with the primary purpose to help keep people employed and the business running in the wake of the economic consequences of the virus.

Brown maintains that PPP fraud alone is worth billions of dollars each year and that this particular type of fraud is at an all-time high in recent months. PPP fraud hurts not only the taxpayers and government but the employers it is designed to provide aid to.

Whistleblowing contains inherent risks but can be extremely rewarding.

Reporting suspicions of fraud can be dangerous for the employee that chooses to do so in the sense that employers often retaliate against whistleblowers by way of wrongful termination, demotions, pay cuts, and harassment in the workplace. The Whistleblower Protection Act is designed to protect people who are brave enough to report an employer’s wrongdoing.

However, when an employer chooses to retaliate anyway it can take some time for the employee’s damages to be recovered due to the time it often takes for a lawsuit to conclude. One of the benefits of whistleblowing, however, is the reward that the whistleblower is given for reporting fraud in the first place which can come in the range of millions of dollars.

One of the best ways a potential whistleblower can protect themself is to contact an experienced whistleblower law firm.

The attorneys that handle whistleblower cases can help an employee report fraud in the safest way possible, and provide additional protection in the event that the employer attempts to retaliate. If you suspect your employer may be committing fraud related to the PPP or otherwise, reach out to a whistleblower attorney as soon as possible to learn how to protect yourself while doing the right thing. Done correctly, the whistleblower may remain anonymous until the conclusion of the investigation.

To learn more, contact Jason Brown directly by calling 888-981-0016 or by submitting a contact form on this page.

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