Whistleblowers often discover evidence of the many types of fraud against the government: Cheating on taxes and other IRS Tax fraud; government contracting fraud in Iraq; Medicare fraud; procurement fraud regarding the efforts of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide disaster assistance in Hurricane Katrina Relief; Medicaid Fraud; other health care fraud or procurement fraud; and fraud against state government programs are all examples of fraud committed against the Government. The fraud costs the Government Millions of dollars and, in turn, taxpayers lose money because of fraud against their government.
To combat the fraud against the Federal Government, Congress enacted the False Claims Act during the American Civil War in 1863. The False Claims Act encouraged private citizens to file cases in the name of the United States to recover damages when false and fraudulent claims were submitted to the government. These lawsuits, called Whistleblower or Qui Tam cases, provide a way for private citizens to share in the recovery of damages recovered.
In 1986 Congress acted to strengthen the False Claims Act by increasing the damages and penalties that can be recovered in such actions, and added protection against retaliation for whistleblowers.
Additionally, if the government is successful in pursuing a Qui Tam / Whistleblower case brought by an individual on its behalf, the whistleblower “relator” could obtain a recovery of between fifteen (15%) and twenty-five (25%) percent of the amount recovered plus reasonable expenses and attorney’s fees.
If the government does not intervene in a whistleblower case filed by the private citizen “Relator,” and the private citizen or Qui Tam plaintiff proceeds with private counsel on behalf of the government, the whistleblower / relator may recover up to thirty (30%) percent of the damages recovered, plus fees and expenses.
In late 2006, Congress acted to stop tax fraud and encourage tax whistleblowers to report fraud against the IRS by creating the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program. Congress dramatically increased the rewards that whistleblowers can obtain from the IRS for reporting tax cheating. The new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program authorizes the IRS to pay tax whistleblowers 15 to 30% of the government's recovery of unpaid taxes, interest, and penalties. The new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program also permits payments of up to 10% of the government's total recovery, even when the whistleblower is not an "original source" of the information.
If you need to report fraud against the federal government or state government, contact us and we will refer you to Attorneys and Law Firms that are successfully working in Whistleblower / Qui Tam law. Help stop the fraud against our government, protect yourself from retaliation and be rewarded under the provisions of the False Claims Act or the IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program.
