Former Bryan Cave Partner Accused of Attempting to Conceal Hack

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A former partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner stands accused of encouraging a client to hide information from the Federal Trade Commission revealing that his cybersecurity firm revealed patient data obtained with the use of spying software she supplied while working as a federal prosecutor tracking and fighting against child pornographers.

The lawsuit claims LabMD, a cancer-screening company, was hacked by a cybersecurity firm called Tiversa Inc., which was secretly using government surveillance software. Tiversa disseminated the data it collected on a peer-to-peer file sharing network, then offered remediation services to LabMD. After LabMD refused to hire the company, Tiversa then reported LabMD to the FTC for a data breach, claiming identity thieves stole patient data. This resulted in the FTC bringing a data security enforcement action against LabMD in August 2013.

Mary Beth Buchanan represented a former Tiversa employee, Richard Wallace, in the FTC action, and gave him the surveillance software in 2007 while she was still serving as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She had been working with Tiversa to prosecute child pornographers.

Wallace used that same software to obtain LabMD’s data, but was fired from Tiversa after refusing to lie under oath about how the company used that data in its scheme. He became the whistleblower that blew this case open, and received immunity for his testimony to the FTC.

LabMD accused Buchanan of instructing Wallace to leave out from his testimony the fact that she had provided him access to those surveillance tools.

Whistleblowers often get good deals

The government needs whistleblowers to be able to prosecute many major fraud and racketeering cases. This means even whistleblowers who had initially played a part in these schemes can stand to at least get immunity from prosecution, similar to what happened with Wallace in this case.

It’s never too late to report wrongdoing within a business, organization or government agency. For more information about how to proceed with your whistleblower claim, consult an experienced Dallas lawyer with Kardell Law Group.

By Steve Kardell | Published August 23, 2018 | Posted in Whistleblower Litigation | Tagged whistleblower, whistleblower award, whistleblower lawsuit

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