Today is an historic day–the House of Representatives has passed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 by a vote of 367-59. The Act includes long-needed amendments to the nation’s primary anti-fraud law, the False Claims Act, about which we have written often.
The amendments are designed to protect the hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds now being spent from fraud affecting TARP, other “stimulus” measures, Medicare and Medicaid, national defense including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and reconstruction efforts, and countless other government programs.
The Senate approved the Act by a vote of 92-4 on April 28th. A conference committee now will consider reconciling differences in the versions of the bill.
The new law closes a series of “loopholes” that allowed dishonest contractors to cheat the American public, and is intended to restore the False Claims Act to its original intent.
Our whistleblower lawyer blog has provided previously a detailed explanation of how the False Claims Act works by allowing private citizen “whistleblowers” (also known as qui tam “relators”) to report fraud and share in the government’s recovery. The False Claims Act also protects whistleblowers from retaliation.
Much will be written about the new amendments, which will greatly strengthen the Act’s effectiveness in combating fraud. We congratulate those in Congress with the wisdom to pass the amendments, as well as all involved in this effort!
Since the late 1980s, our attorneys have worked with the nation’s major whistleblower law, the False Claims Act. We have represented whistleblowers who reported fraud and false claims in many government programs, including contractor fraud in Iraq reconstruction, other military contracts, NASA programs, Hurricane Katrina and other disaster relief, and of course Medicare/Medicaid fraud.
In addition, False Claims Act cases may also involve IRS Whistleblower claims. Ever since the beginning of the new IRS Whistleblower Program, our whistleblower lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have represented whistleblowers in the new program. We have represented persons with IRS Whistleblower claims in the hedge fund industry, other financial services industries, real estate, manufacturing, and many other businesses, as tax fraud, tax evasion, and other tax noncompliance are not limited to one area.
For a free consultation about a possible whistleblower claim, please call us at 800-228-9159, or email us HERE.