The False Claims Act establishes liability against persons who submit false claims for payment to the Government. It allows individuals who know about such fraud against the Government to file a lawsuit on behalf of the Government and to share in the proceeds of a recovery. So how does a person know if a claim for payment is a “false…
While whistleblowers already have several means to report fraud to the federal government—including the False Claims Act, the IRS whistleblower program, and the SEC and CFTC whistleblower programs—there is a new, bipartisan, fraud-fighting law on the books that rewards whistleblowers for valuable information in the auto industry. Since late 2015, the Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act (MVSWA) has offered monetary…
Under the False Claims Act (FCA), the Government is entitled to recover money paid to private parties as a result of fraudulent conduct. Specifically, the Government is entitled to recover up to three times the primary damages it suffered as a result of the fraud, in addition to statutorily fixed penalties for each false claim for payment that the contractor…
The federal False Claims Act — as well as state False Claims Acts — rewards the people who provide information about companies and individuals who cause federal and/or state government entities to pay these parties more than they’re entitled to receive. These statutes also permit whistleblowers to jointly bring False Claims Act lawsuits and then jointly share in the successful…
Last week, the Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote, issued an important ruling on the protections that the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform Act offers to whistleblowers. The case, Digital Realty Trust Inc. v. Somers, determined that Dodd Frank protects from retaliation only those whistleblowers who complain about corporate fraud to the Securities Exchange Commission. By contrast, the Court explained,…
If you are one of the nearly quarter-million people employed by the State of California, you should feel safe reporting any improper or illegal activity that you see around you. These protections are found in a law called the California Whistleblower Protection Act (CWPA), and they apply to anyone working for the state government or the California State University system, as well…
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has established a program to reward whistleblowers that report violations of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA). The CFTC whistleblower program was created by the Dodd-Frank Act and became effective in October 2011. Under the CFTC’s burgeoning whistleblower program, whistleblowers have been rewarded with individual pay-outs as large as $10 million. Under the CFTC whistleblower program,…
About two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release announcing more than $3.7 billion in settlements and judgments during fiscal year 2017[1] from civil cases brought under the False Claims Act – a federal law that rewards whistleblowers (called “relators”) who recover stolen taxpayer dollars from fraudsters. The government’s press release attaches DOJ’s FY2017 “Fraud Statistics” charts, which document…
Foreign nationals often play a critical role in providing information necessary to successful enforcement actions. This role is particularly important as the United States seeks to crack down on the American corporations engaging in bribery and corruption while doing business abroad. One of the primary tools the United States Government uses to fight corruption is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,…
The Davis-Bacon Act, 40 U.S.C. §§ 3141-3148, requires that contractors and subcontractors on federal construction projects pay their employees the prevailing wage rate for their job classification as determined by the U.S. Secretary of Labor. The Davis-Bacon Act is a protective labor law that requires certain federal government contracts “for construction, alteration, and/or repair of public buildings or public works of…