ON BACKGROUND
Wigdor has filed a whistleblower retaliation and race discrimination complaint against The University of Nebraska on behalf of globally lauded pancreatic cancer authority, Dr. Sunil Hingorani. Dr. Hingorani was hired to develop and lead the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence (“PCCE”) at Nebraska University to catapult the state to the leading position in the fight against the deadly cancer and extend advanced care, breakthrough research, and progressive clinical trials to the people of Nebraska.
Dr. Hingorani is not merely an accomplished physician. He is among the most credentialed, most published, and most clinically impactful pancreatic cancer researchers in the world. Though more than satisfied with his role, Dr. Hingorani agreed to move his career to The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine, largely based on the promise of $30 million in funding from state legislation and private philanthropy.
However, as alleged in the complaint, Dr. Hingorani arrived in Nebraska to find a much different situation than the one he was promised. Defendants misrepresented that private funding (on which millions of dollars in additional legislative funding was predicated) was in hand when it was not, resulting in the release of state dollars based on false premises and subsequent use of those dollars for impermissible purposes. The Defendants failed to provide basic internet technology and security, hindered Dr. Hingorani’s efforts to acquire critical equipment needed to conduct research, and engaged in self-dealing for infrastructure projects.
When he complained about and reported Defendants’ unlawful actions along the way, he suffered prompt and severe retaliation. In August 2024, leadership allegedly secretly drafted a false progress report claiming the PCCE had made little to no progress since its inception, which led to Dr. Hingorani’s removal from the multidisciplinary clinic (PDSC) he was hired to direct. His expulsion was not only detrimental to his career, but to the lives of the cancer patients he was trying to save. His expulsion directly resulted in patient care decisions that resulted in the hastened death of one patient and subsequent attempts to sweep this mistake under the rug, as alleged in the complaint.
In addition to retaliation, the mistreatment suffered by Dr. Hingorani was motivated by race, ethnicity and national origin discrimination. He was one of six South East Asian mid- to senior-level scientists reporting to Dr. Sweasy during the relevant period. In a discriminatory pattern, three have been forced out, and three demoted. Defendants have since refused to pay Dr. Hingorani his full compensation, in further breach of his contract and in further retaliation for his protected conduct.
The full complaint for Sunil Hingorani v. The Board of Regents of The University of Nebraska, The University of Nebraska, The University of Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska Medicine, UNMC Physicians, Jeffrey Gold and Joann Sweasy may be found here.
Please reach out to Wigdor LLP Partner Michael Willemin (mwillemin@wigdorlaw.com) or Director of Marketing Tess Neudeck (tneudeck@wigdorlaw.com) with any questions.