By NEIL GORDON
The Department of Justice announced on Monday that it had secured more than $3 billion in settlements and judgments in civil False Claims Act cases this past fiscal year. This follows last week's announcement that Justice recovered more than $5.6 billion in civil and criminal government fraud cases combined.
This week's press release announcement pays special tribute to whistleblowers. It notes that the $3 billion total includes a record $2.8 billion in recoveries under the whistleblower, or qui tam, provisions of the False Claims Act, and that the number of qui tam suits hit a peak of 638 this past year. According to Justice, whistleblowers have filed more than 7,800 qui tam lawsuits since 1986, when the False Claims Act was substantially strengthened.
“We are tremendously grateful to whistleblowers who have brought fraud allegations to the government’s attention and assisted us in this public-private partnership to fight fraud,” Assistant Attorney General Tony West stated in the press release.
Angela Canterbury, POGO’s Director of Public Policy, recently testified before the Senate on the need for stronger whistleblower protections for federal contractor employees.
Neil Gordon is a POGO Investigator.
Image via Truthout.org.
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