Immediately upon learning of these charges, we took swift action and Mr. Wertkin is no longer with the firm.”
It all began, according to court documents, a week after Thanksgiving, when Mr. Wertkin left a voice message for a “high ranking” employee of a Sunnyvale, Calif., company, which was not identified
but was described as providing “technology security.”
In a voice message, the government says, Mr. Wertkin did not identify himself but referred to a sealed lawsuit
that had been filed against the company in Federal District Court in San Francisco.
“My life is over,” Mr. Wertkin said aloud as he was arrested in the hotel lobby, according to a statement
filed by the government in Federal District Court in San Francisco last week and unsealed on Monday.
Mr. Wertkin told the tech company employee it would be in his interest to buy the complaint
“so the company could get out ahead of the investigation,” the statement said.
At the Justice Department, Mr. Wertkin had gone after pharmaceutical companies, managed-care plans
and pharmacy benefit managers as well as hospitals and hospice companies, specializing in cases of Medicare fraud under the False Claim Act, a law the government uses to pursue companies and people for defrauding government programs.
Dan had contacted an executive of the company offering to provide the sealed court
document in exchange for a $310,000 “consulting fee,” government officials say.