Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal’s Risk and Compliance Journal, Global Practice Counsel Luis Moreno Ocampo said that US whistleblower laws can be used not just by individuals but by companies to control the fraudulent and corrupt conduct of competitors.
Reflecting on his career as a prosecutor fighting corruption in Argentina and then as the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, he said that he had joined Getnick & Getnick because of the firm’s commitment to a new era in which integrity is seen as a profit center. “The US is the only country in the world that rewards individuals who are honest,” he said. “This is unique.”
He gave examples of two cases in which individuals had received significant financial awards for reporting misconduct by pharmaceutical companies – one in which a former Quality Assurance Manager for GlaxoSmithKline represented by G&G had exposed the company’s distribution of adulterated drugs made in a factory in Puerto Rico, and another involving a drug company making product in India that was sold in the US.
He said that the new era is for companies to take similar action against competitors who are paying bribes and kickbacks, using US whistleblower laws to control their conduct, level the playing field and allow honest companies to do business honestly. “Companies have to learn how to use these laws to protect their integrity and improve their markets,” he said. Watch the video.
