$10 million to UCLA Whistleblower

It's not every day that UC makes the front page of the LA Times.  But today's paper has news of a whistleblower settlement for $10 million (which is 1/15th of a Grand Hotel).  Don't know more than what the LA Times reports except that you don't shell out $10 million unless you fear you might lose in court and have to pay a hell of a lot more.  Note that the settlement was reached just before closing arguments in court.

Excerpt:
University of California regents agreed to pay $10 million to the former chairman of UCLA's orthopedic surgery department, who had alleged that the well-known medical school allowed doctors to take industry payments that may have compromised patient care. The settlement reached Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court came just before closing arguments were due to begin in a whistleblower-retaliation case brought by Dr. Robert Pedowitz, 54, a surgeon who was recruited to UCLA in 2009 to run the orthopedic surgery department.In 2012, the surgeon sued UCLA, the UC regents, fellow surgeons and senior university officials, alleging they failed to act on his complaints about widespread conflicts of interest and later retaliated against him for speaking up...

Full story at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-doctor-conflicts-20140423,0,3924175.story

Clearly, someone was afraid of the whistler: