Consumer Fraud Articles

Investment and securities fraud is one area of consumer fraud litigation pursued by the attorneys at Beasley Allen. Litigation includes individual cases as well as class actions that have been filed throughout the country. Cases in this area also involve matters including wrongful conduct of insurance and finance companies including fraud and bad faith, mortgage loan fraud, general consumer fraud and employment issues. Pending cases include securities and investment fraud litigation against companies including Stanford Securities and Regions Morgan Keegan, among others.

Our firm also is representing people who have been taken advantage of in the workplace, through violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In these cases, employers intentionally misclassify employees as independent contractors or managers in order to reduce costs such as overtime compensation, employee benefits, payroll taxes, unemployment compensation and workers compensation.

Harvard Medical School to stand trial for Alzheimer’s research fraud

Posted: May 14, 2012

Harvard Medical School will face trial for conducting research fraud after a U.S. Appeals Court overturned the decision of a lower court Tuesday and ordered the case to proceed. The claim, which involves one of the largest Alzheimer’s disease research

Abbott to pay $1.5 billion for illegally promoting Depakote, thanks to whistleblower lawsuits

Posted: May 10, 2012

Abbott Laboratories has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $1.5 billion to resolve criminal and civil charges for fraudulently promoting its anti-seizure drug Depakote for a number of unapproved, off-label purposes. The near-record payout, the second largest by a drug

Montgomery man faces harsh backlash after blowing whistle on his international employer

Posted: May 4, 2012

MONTGOMERY, ALA–Blowing the whistle on corporate fraud and other wrongdoing would be a no-brainer for most people, but the truth is workers have a lot to consider when faced with the prospect of calling out their employers. The threat of

Actos linked to serious psychiatric impairments, medical reviewer alleges

Posted: April 26, 2012

The diabetes drug Actos is linked to higher rates of suicide, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and grand mal seizures compared to other drugs in the same class, such as Avandia, says Dr. Helen Ge, a former medical reviewer in Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ pharmacovigilance

Unnecessary surgeries were performed for profit and promotion, whistleblower lawsuit alleges

Posted: April 11, 2012

A whistleblower lawsuit filed against The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Hamot campus under the False Claims Act accuses the hospital and five cardiologists of defrauding Medicare and a number of patients by participating in a kickback scheme from

Whistleblower receives $21 million for exposing health care fraud

Posted: April 5, 2012

A former senior financial analyst for a Florida-based health plan provider will receive nearly $21 million for his role in exposing his employer’s fraudulent business practices, which involved double billing Medicare and Medicaid.

“Reluctant whistleblower” tells Reuters about pink slime in ground beef

Posted: March 30, 2012

The national outrage over chemically treated meat scraps dubbed “pink slime” and sold to unsuspecting consumers as ground beef started with a disapproving email written by a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) microbiologist to a colleague.

Toyota can’t force arbitration in sudden unintended acceleration cases, judge rules

Posted: March 29, 2012

Toyota can’t force arbitration of economic-loss claims filed by plaintiffs who allege the carmaker’s sudden-unintended-acceleration defects led to diminished market value for their vehicles, U.S. District judge James Selna has ruled.

Toyota recalls 700,000 vehicles for safety repairs

Posted: March 8, 2012

Toyota announced Wednesday that it will begin recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles next month to repair potential safety problems.

Whistleblowers key in the fight against fraud

Posted: March 8, 2012

Whistleblowers have become one of the federal government’s most valuable tools in its ongoing efforts to crack down on corporate wrongdoing and recover money lost to overbilling and other fraudulent activities.