I looked into the experiences that states have had with their own False Claims Acts, because almost every state is considering passing its own. I have tried to provide a brief summary that I hope is useful to you. To encourage states to enact their own False Claims statutes with…
Finch McCranie, LLP has recently learned that many state government officials, including Governor Perdue of Georgia, have received a proposed State False Claims Act for consideration to be enacted in 2007. Even though the Bill has been drafted and is on his desk, at present, the Bill has not been…
In our multi-part explanation of the federal False Claims Act previously posted, we have summarized the most recent verdicts and settlements of qui tam whistleblower cases (as of December 2006). We will continue to update you on additional verdicts and settlements of significance.
We have tried to explain what readers may want to know about how the whistleblower statute works, in our article explaining the False Claims Act. Here is the current language of this law that creates rewards for qui tam whistleblowers: FALSE CLAIMS ACT TITLE 31. MONEY AND FINANCE SUBTITLE III.…
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations revised its Code of Ethics on January 1 of this year for the first time in a decade. Under the newly revised Code of Ethics, members of the trade group which represents pharmaceutical companies worldwide may no longer provide “expensive gifts” or…
In February, 2006, President Bush signed into law the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA). An obscure provision within this Act mandates that entities receiving greater than $5 million per year in Medicaid payments must educate their employees about “whistleblower” claims under the Federal False Claims Act. Under the DRA,…
We are excited that, in December 2006, Congress dramatically increased the “rewards” to whistleblowers under the IRS Whistleblower rewards program. Whistleblowers now can receive up to 30% of the taxes, interest, and penalties that the IRS recovers based on information furnished by a whistleblower in large tax cases. For years,…
The Federal False Claims Act has been recognized as the government’s most effective tool for combating fraud and waste in government programs. According to the Justice Department, false claims act recoveries for the fiscal year 2006 exceeded 3 billion dollars. Unfortunately, the whistleblower reward program utilized by the Internal Revenue…
According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has spent to date over $437 billion on the Iraq War. An additional $100 billion is estimated to be spent this year. While much of the money, obviously, goes for troops, a great deal of these amounts has gone to civilian…
The salutary intent of the Deficit Reduction Act was to require that employers educate employees about the Federal False Claims Act and, hopefully, address fraud and abuse by employer entities receiving $5 million dollars or more in federal funds under the Medicaid program. When the Deficit Reduction Act was passed…