QUI TAM / WHISTLEBLOWER
On behalf of whistleblowers, our lawyers bring qui tam cases involving fraud against the Federal Government. The federal False Claims Act (“FCA”) and its qui tam provisions provide compensation for an individual, who may collect up to 30% of the amount recovered from the fraudulent vendor or contractor.
The FCA also protects whistleblowers from retaliation from his or her employer. The False Claims Act is the single most important tool U.S. taxpayers have to recover the billions of dollars stolen through fraud by U.S. government contractors every year.
The federal government has recovered more than 20 billion dollars in FCA over the last twenty years. Some types of fraud covered by the FCA include:
- Fraud by defense contractors
- Fraud by health care providers, including Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, and pharmaceutical fraud
- Providing inferior parts in government contracts
- Paying employees less wages
- Fraud in scientific federal grants
- Overbilling the government
- Billing the government for work that was never performed
- General falsification of records or invoices
Qui tam whistleblower cases are quite complex and often take many years to see through. However, these cases often result in recoveries of hundreds of millions or billions of dollars for the government, and tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for the whistleblower.
For an overview of the qui tam process click here.
If you know of government fraud and would like to speak with an attorney experienced in handling these types of matters contact the attorneys at Snider & Associates, LLC