ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Legal Newsline) - A former Walgreens pharmacist sued the company on Dec. 4 over allegations of wrongful termination after she reported suspicious activity internally and to external law enforcement.
Maria Thompson worked for Walgreens from February 2007 to February 2014. In one instance, the suit alleges that her former colleague, Olga Zycter, would fill prescriptions for herself and her husband. Thompson reported the activity to supervisors, who allegedly ignored the situation.
After Thompson received prescriptions for Zycter that appeared to be falsified and that had allegedly been filled using her log-in data, she reported the activity to the FBI and the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.
The suit alleges that Thompson's supervisors in the store and district level were angry that she had gone over them in this case.
Later, as a pharmacist serving multiple stores in the region, she saw employees at the company's Woodbridge, Va., location allegedly filling suspicious narcotics prescriptions and violating Medicare Part D regulations by accepting falsified co-payment coupons.
She reported the activity to her district manager, who did not appear to have the matter investigated nor stop the behavior, she claims.
Zycter was later terminated, allegedly because she reported the suspisious behavior. She brought the suit under the federal False Claims Act.
She is seeking double back pay, front pay and compensatory and punitive damages. Zycter is represented by Jack Jarrett of the Spiggle Law Firm, PLLC in Arlington, Va.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia case number 1:14-cv-01646.