The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that it collected $3.5 billion in settlements involving fraud and false claims against the government in Fiscal Year 2015. Whistleblower-initiated cases brought in $2.8 billion of the total recovery. Health care, banking, and mortgage fraud accounted for the majority of the recoveries, with additional recoveries stemming from cases against the for-profit education and defense contracting industry.
“The False Claims Act has again proven to be the government’s most effective civil tool to ferret out fraud and return billions to taxpayer-funded programs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Mizer.
“The recoveries announced today help preserve the integrity of vital government programs that provide health care to the elderly and low income families, ensure our national security and defense, and enable countless Americans to purchase homes.”
“Incentivized integrity programs work, and they work to not only collect stolen money and penalties, but to ferret out, discourage, and thwart continuing illegal actions,” says Patrick Burns, Co-Executive Director of Taxpayers Against Fraud in Washington, D.C.
“The False Claims Act is a true public-private partnership between whistleblowers, their private counsel, and DoJ. Once again, it has proven to be the most effective tool government has to fight fraud against America’s taxpayers.”
