Whistleblower Rights and Compensation
A federal statue provides generous
financial incentive to help the government root out fraud. In 1986,
the False Claims Act was amended to provide significant compensation
to whistleblowers that successfully assist in claims of fraud
against the federal government. The whistleblower is know as a
"relator." If you are employee, your job is
protected subject to several caveats (see Whistleblower Protection
under the FCA).
The procedure is to file a
confidential legal action in federal court and give an opportunity
for the Department of Justice to investigate. This could take years.
The government can decide to take over the case and does so just
over 25% of the time. You remain in the case and can intervene if
you are not satisfied with the work the government is doing on the
case. If the government does not take the case, you must prosecute
it yourself. This can be very expensive against a big corporation.
FCA Whistleblower Compensation
Total monetary recovery
under the False Claims Act is the amount of the fraud times three
(tripled). If the government takes over the case and wins and if you
were not involved in the fraud, judge will award you between 15 and
25 percent depending on the value of your contribution to the case.
If the government does not take over the case and you successfully
prosecutes the case, the judge will award you between 25 and 30
percent of the proceeds. If you were involved in the wrongdoing, the
court can reduce your share at its discretion depending on the
circumstances. The court will dismiss you entirely if you are
convicted of criminal conduct arising from the fraud. Attorney fees
and costs are awarded if you win the case.
How We Handle FCA Whistleblower Cases
We look for cases that have a reliable and
creditable whistleblower that has documentary evidence of the fraud.
We charge our normal contingency fee rates to the net recovery from
the case.
Fraud on the Government
Whistleblower Protection