One of the common themes you hear from politicians is that we need to reduce wasteful government spending. While it is seems little progress is ever made towards stopping or even slowing the soaring costs of the federal government, there is an opportunity and significant financial incentive for individuals to help recover money from individuals and companies that have fraudulently obtained federal money.
The False Claims Act is a federal law that imposes liability on persons and companies (typically federal contractors) who defraud governmental programs. These programs may include Medicare and Medicaid, federal construction projects, and many other types of projects which are bidded to private companies. Under the False Claims Act, any individual or company that knowingly submits an invoice, request for payment, or makes a false statement to obtain a payment from the government is subject to liability, including treble damages and civil fines of $5,000 to $10,000 per claim.
Many employees who work for companies that work on federal projects or receive federal money become aware that the company may be submitting inaccurate documents to the government that either qualify them for government reimbursement or cause them to receive additional government funds to which they are not entitled.
It is never easy for someone to choose to become a whistleblower and report federal fraud. Therefore, the government has provided both financial incentives and protections from retaliation by the employer. An individual who provides information that leads to successful recovery under the False Claims Act may recover between 15% to 30% of the total recovery. This can be a significant amount due to the often large scale recoveries under this statute.
There are numerous private companies in Alabama that receive money either directly or indirectly from the federal government. These include medical centers, hospice companies, home health care companies, construction companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, contractors, and companies that are receiving stimulus money. A list of the largest recipients of federal funds in Alabama is available at the following website: http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=stateSummaryTopRecipients&statecode=AL