Whistleblower Case Presents Interesting Twist On Concept Of Retaliation Under False Claims Act

Nowadays, whistleblowing is a very important issue, especially in these times of COVID-19 and in that vein, there are new and “creative” ways for employers to allegedly retaliate against employees who wish to report wrongdoing.  In a recent variation on this theme, a Contracts Manager has sued Airbus Group under the False Claims Act, claiming that the Company falsely “turned him in” to the FBI after he stated that he believed the Company’s accounting practices were suspect and, more importantly, after the Company learned that he had kept evidence of the submission of false claims to the federal government.