Lawsuit: Pfizer fired, retaliated against whistleblower who raised FCPA concerns
By 
Jeff Dale2023-08-25T12:53:00
An ex-Pfizer compliance officer is suing his former employer claiming wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation after discovering the company allegedly paid $168 million to potentially influential government officials (PIGOs) in China.
Frank Han, a former director of global compliance analytics for the pharmaceuticals giant, originally filed his lawsuit in California state court before it was moved to federal court earlier this month.
From April 2019 through September 2021, Pfizer allegedly paid 10 times the amount of money on PIGOs in China than they spent elsewhere during the same time frame, the lawsuit alleged. Out of the $168 million, $138 million went to corporate sponsorships, the lawsuit stated. Han said he uncovered the data from a fraud detection algorithm he developed to analyze the company’s global external funding.
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