Giantkillers: The Team and the Law that Helped Whistle-Blowers Recover America's Stolen Billions

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Enacted 150 years ago to help whistle-blowers bring crooked government contractors to justice, the False Claims Act is one of America's most important -- and least known -- public-interest laws. Giantkillers tells the dramatic and inspiring behind-the-scenes story of how crusading publicinterest attorney John Phillips revitalized this ailing law after it had been gutted by lobbyists and left for dead. During the 1980s, in response to massive fraud by corporate Goliaths such as Columbia/HCA, Smith Barney, and General Electric, Phillips took on a dramatic, high-stakes battle. Forging an unlikely alliance with a conservative senator and liberal congressman, it helped recraft the False Claims Act to give whistle-blowers the power to sue corrupt contractors on the government's behalf and receive up to 30 percent of the judgment. Since then, The Wall Street Journal says that "no other lawyer has done as much to help the government expose fraud."

Although corporate abuse receives front-page, prime-time coverage, few people understand how the offenders are actually brought to justice via the False Claims Act, how long the process takes (years to decades), and, ultimately, the toll the arduous process can take on the financial, physical, and emotional health of the whistle-blowers and their families. Through the incredible stories of ordinary people who risked friendships, careers, families, and even their lives in order to fight gross betrayals of the public trust, Giantkillers traces the evolution of the whistle-blower from social outcast to a new kind of American hero. Emil Stache nearly lost his life to contractor fraud when he fell victim to a faulty artillery shell in Vietnam. Years later, working for a crooked company that manufactured parts for nuclear weapons, he turned to the FBI to make sure the same thing didn't happen to others. Jim Alderson, who lost his job after blowing the whistle on rampant misfeasance by a national health-care company, went from being a small-town accountant and family man in Montana to the central figure in the longest, richest fraud case in American history. Michael Lissack, a Wall Street maverick on the rise, sacrificed his idyllic lifestyle to expose unchecked corruption, changing the face of an industry.

Charged with suspense, inspiring heroics, and riveting courtroom drama, Giantkillers offers a vivid insider's look into the world of whistle-blowers, their adversaries, and their allies, weighing the lure of corporate greed and reckless power against the high cost -- and often breath-taking rewards -- of personal integrity.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

Scammell's book offers a compelling argument for the importance of tort claims in protecting consumers and the government. — Robert Bryce

Publishers Weekly

Freelance author Scammell has written a panegyric to the False Claims Act, a Civil War-vintage statute authorizing private lawsuits (called qui tam actions) to recover money swindled from the federal government. As revised and strengthened in 1986, the False Claims Act permits a whistle-blower to sue on the government's behalf; if the case succeeds, the whistle-blower receives up to 25% of the judgment. According to the author, over $6 billion has been recovered since 1986 through cases under the False Claims Act. Scammell selects for review several prominent cases brought against diverse frauds in the defense and health care industries and the municipal bond market. In each instance, according to Scammell, the motives driving the whistle-blowers are unreservedly noble, and the defendant companies are pervaded by fraud and malice. Moreover, in each case the government regulators are craven and ineffectual and the Department of Justice indifferent, while the private firm representing the whistle-blowers is unerringly brilliant. All this might well be true in the selected cases, since, after all, these lawsuits netted stupendous recoveries. The book's appendix discloses that more than 60% of qui tam complaints filed since 1986 have been dismissed with no recovery. Some account of this high incidence of failure would have been helpful to understanding the overall impact of the law. Omitting any discussion of the act's mixed record of success, Scammell maintains a positive tone in this appreciation of a little-known weapon against public fraud. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In this entertaining, smoothly written account, freelance writer Scammell documents how whistle-blowers in the healthcare and defense industries took advantage of the federal False Claims Act to recover billions of dollars for the United States. (Whistle-blowers can legally collect up to 25 percent of the judgment.) Instead of delving into the technical aspects of the law enacted during the Civil War to address fraud in the military supply business, Scammell profiles the individuals who found malfeasance and recovered a percentage for themselves as a reward. For example, the book contains accounts of the scandal at Columbia/HCA and of an eye surgeon who billed Medicare for expensive procedures that he needlessly performed and for work not done. The book benefits from the author's attention to detail, including his follow-ups with the whistle-blowers years after their victories. The connecting thread is attorney John Phillips, whose firm is responsible for a large number of the cases brought under the act. Phillips was instrumental in compelling Congress to update the law in 1986, and the bill's authors, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), provide an afterword. Recommended for all collections.-Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews