Fraud against the Government has been with us since colonial times, when contractors sold the revolutionary army defective supplies and overcharged for substandard goods. To protect the Government from fraud as it persisted through the years, Congress passed the federal False Claims Act in 1863 during the Civil War. That law was revived in the mid 1980s when the problem with fraud against the Government grew to staggering proportions.
Since 1986 False Claims Act enforcement resulted in nearly $8 billion in recovery to the Government. The Government offers a reward of bounty of around 17% of what it recovers from a “whistleblower” or relator. A relator is someone who informs the Government of a fraud against the Government and who is the original source of that information.
Whistleblower cases usually arise from a disgruntled employee who is fired but is privy to the company’s fraud. Whistleblower cases come from a variety of industries but are most common in the defense industry and healthcare including medicare fraud.
To become a whistleblower one must inform the Government about the case and then file a lawsuit under seal in the federal court. The rewards can be substantial with the Government paying out over $1.2 billion dollars in rewards since the late 1980s.
Robert G. Klein is a lawyer in the Los Angeles area who specializes in business litigation, trademark infringement litigation, trade secret litigation, business disputes, and unfair competition. He has been lead trial attorney in approximately 60 trials and has obtained multi-million dollar jury verdicts for his clients. For more information about whistleblower lawsuits, call Robert G. Klein at (213) 996-8508.