UPPER SAUCON TWP., Pa. – A federal judge has dismissed a second lawsuit from a former Olympus employee who claimed he was fired for bringing attention to the MedTech company’s fraud and noncompliance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

Paul Lisenby worked for Olympus as the global head of product development from May 2022 to March 2024, when he was terminated. He worked primarily from his home in Florida, although Olympus’ global headquarters are in Japan, and its U.S. operations are based in Upper Saucon Township, Lehigh County. 

In his initial lawsuit, filed in April of 2024, Lisenby alleged he was fired after trying to bring attention to “numerous systemic failures in Olympus’ approach to design, testing, and validation that resulted in failures to conform to FDA standards.”

A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in February of 2025, saying Lisenby failed to establish that Olympus violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly presenting a false or fraudulent claim to the U.S. government. The judge also wrote that Lisenby, by failing to demonstrate a “nexus” between potential safety issues and a specific FCA violation, failed to demonstrate that he engaged in protected activity.

In his most recent lawsuit, filed in March of 2025, Lisenby accused Olympus of violating the National Defense Authorization Act; specifically, he said the company mismanaged its contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by providing it with medical devices that didn’t have the necessary FDA approvals.

The judge didn’t agree, writing in the opinion that Lisenby “has failed to allege a single contract, let alone a federal contract, that the Defendants grossly mismanaged.”

The judge pointed out that one of the devices in question, the Quick Clip Pro 2 (QCP2), which is used in endoscopic procedures, was not even on the market at the time, and so was not sold to the VA.

Lisenby’s claims of violations of Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law and the Florida Private Whistleblower Act in the most recent case were also dismissed.

A company spokesperson said Olympus has no additional comment regarding the judge’s ruling.