- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jeff Dale2023-08-25T12:53:00
An ex-Pfizer compliance officer is suing his former employer claiming wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation after discovering the company allegedly paid $168 million to potentially influential government officials (PIGOs) in China.
Frank Han, a former director of global compliance analytics for the pharmaceuticals giant, originally filed his lawsuit in California state court before it was moved to federal court earlier this month.
From April 2019 through September 2021, Pfizer allegedly paid 10 times the amount of money on PIGOs in China than they spent elsewhere during the same time frame, the lawsuit alleged. Out of the $168 million, $138 million went to corporate sponsorships, the lawsuit stated. Han said he uncovered the data from a fraud detection algorithm he developed to analyze the company’s global external funding.
THIS IS MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. To continue reading, choose one of the options below.
News and analysis for the well-informed compliance or audit exec. Select an option and click continue.
Annual Membership $499 Value offer
Full price one year membership with auto-renewal.
Membership $599
One-year only, no auto-renewal.
The ex-chief compliance officer at Payqwick, a California-based money transmitter that serviced the cannabis industry, is suing her former employer alleging wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation over lax disclosures related to an acquisition.
A Foreign Corrupt Practices Act review published by the Department of Justice offers further clarity around when the agency would determine expenses paid on behalf of a foreign official to be deemed “reasonable and bona fide.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered 3M to pay nearly $6.6 million for alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act regarding hidden travel perks its foreign subsidiary made to government officials in China.
Two pairs of claimants will receive whistleblower awards totaling more than $98 million and $24 million, respectively, for information they provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission that led to an enforcement action.
Discrimination against whistleblowers in the U.K. has risen to such a level that the government may need to actively pursue plans to afford greater legal protection, as well as introduce financial awards to compensate for their “career suicide.”
The Department of Justice released the details of its long-awaited corporate whistleblower awards pilot program that will prioritize reporting in areas of corporate crime not currently covered by existing whistleblower programs.
