The federal government buys billions of dollars of goods and services each year. Private prisons, aircraft maintenance, new Coast Guard cutters and yes, chicken nuggets. Military mess halls and prison cafeterias serve millions of pounds of chicken nuggets each year. Ditto for state prisons and school lunch programs.
Where do those nuggets come from? Many of those nuggets come from Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. Based in Waco, Texas, the name Pilgrim’s Pride conjures up something wholesome and nutrious. According to a recall by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, however, those nuggets are anything but wholesome. The recall affects up to 4,568,080 pounds of fully cooked chicken products that may be contaminated with “extraneous materials, including plastic, wood, rubber, and metal.”
Who is Pilgrim’s Pride and who do they sell to? Pilgrim’s Pride is owned by a Brazilian company called JBS. According to their website, JBS is the largest supplier of “animal protein” in the world. In addition to their Pilgrim’s Pride label, they also sell to Wendy’s, KFC and other large buyers.
So how can bad chicken nuggets be turned into a whistleblower award? The answer is deceptively simple.
The federal False Claims Act pays awards to individuals with inside information about fraud against the government. If the “plastic, wood, rubber and metal” in chicken nuggets was purely an accident and unknown to the company, there probably was no fraud. Pilgrim’s Pride is no stranger to recalls and bad products, however.
In 2002, the company’s poultry products were linked to three deaths and resulted in one of the largest recalls in history.
If the company knew its products were contaminated or unsafe and continued to sell them, a whistleblower award becomes possible. We are seeking someone from Pilgrim’s Pride or JBS or one of their companion brands (Gold Kist, Pierce, etc.) that knew contaminated products were being sold to the military or schools.
False Claims Act and Whistleblower Award Eligibility
Under the False Claims Act, insiders or those with original source information about fraud on a government program or government funds can receive an award of between 15% and 30% of whatever the government collects from the wrongdoer.
The whistleblower award is generally only paid to the first person who comes forward and files a sealed claim in federal court. (if you want an award, don’t procrastinate!) Awards are not given for information already in the public domain. In this case, that means we are looking for someone who can tell us whether or not Pilgrim’s Pride had information about adulterated chicken nuggets yet kept on selling them.
MahanyLaw – America’s Whistleblower Lawyers
The whistleblower lawyers at MahanyLaw are devoted to stopping corporate greed, fraud and corruption. We routinely take on some of the most powerful companies in the world and have helped our clients collect whistleblower awards in excess of $100,000,000.00. In 2014, Brian Mahany and the MahanyLaw team helped the government collect over $16 billion from Bank of America, the largest civil recovery in the history of the United States.
Our cases are handled on a contingent fee basis meaning you never have to advance any monies. All inquiries are also protected by the attorney – client privilege and kept strictly confidential. Worried about retaliation? Our work doesn’t stop with getting you an award, we also protect our clients from retaliation.
For more information, contact attorney Brian Mahany at *protected email* or by telephone (direct) at (414) 704-6731. You can also download our 11 step guide to blowing the whistle here.
MahanyLaw – America’s Whistleblower Lawyers
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