A whistleblower case under the federal False Claims Act against AT & T that it fraudulently overbilled the federal government has been settled with the company paying $3.5 million. The whistleblower, Constance Lyttle, who worked for AT & T in western Pennsylvania, filed the case in 2010 claiming that she was fired for trying to stop wrongful uses of a service for hearing-impaired. The Justice Department later joined the suit claiming that AT & T overbilled the government related to the service. Ms. Lyttle will retain $525,000 of the settlement.
Source: Washington Post
The federal False Claims Act is a good law that protects taxpayers and employees of companies doing business with the federal government that want to make sure the right thing is done. The False Claims Act makes it unlawful to terminate an employee in retaliation for their efforts to stop a fraudulent practice; it also permits the filing of a whistleblower lawsuit aimed at recovering the money that the company has defrauded from the government.
