Whistleblower's Lament
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Peter Scannell wants his cut.
The former Putnam Investments employee, who blew the whistle on the Boston-based fund giant's market-timing practices, has filed a lawsuit seeking 30 percent of the firm's $50 million fine, according to a report in the Boston Herald.
Scannell believes he is due $15 million under a state law passed in 2000 that lets whistleblowers participate in judgments against the firms they have fingered. He has filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and against the state's attorney general Tom Reilly, who denied his compensation request in June.
Reilly says Scannell failed to take the proper steps to qualify as a whistleblower. Further, the False Claims Act of 2000 was intended to fight fraud against the state, not against private companies or investors.
Whether Scannell gets a bag of Benjamins for his efforts is now in the hands of the courts.
