Ex-Bayer Salesman Wins Award In FCA Retaliation Suit
By Keith Goldberg
Law360, New York (November 05, 2012, 3:52 PM ET) — An Arkansas federal jury on Friday awarded a former Bayer Corp. sales representative nearly $900,000 after finding that the company fired him in retaliation for blowing the whistle on a customer’s Medicaid scam, in violation of the False Claims Act.
After a five-day trial, the jury found that Bayer had not shown that it would have fired Mike Townsend in March 2010 even if he had not engaged in protected whistleblower activity alleging a doctor and Bayer customer illicitly billed Medicaid for contraceptive Mirena.