The Department of Justice recovered more then $3.7 billion in settlements and judgments in Fiscal Year 2017 from the False Claims Act according to the press release issued last week. The majority of the funds recovered were in lawsuits initiated by whistleblowers. Qui tam lawsuits led to $3.4 billion of the $3.7 billion in settlements and judgments. Whistleblowers received $392 million during FY2017 for bringing fraud to the attention of the United States and the Department of Justice. Whistleblower awards were down from last year, when the United States paid out $519 million to whistleblowers based on the recovery of $2.9 billion. The False Claims Act provides for awards of between 15 and 30 percent of funds recovered from False Claims Act lawsuits. There were 669 qui tam lawsuits filed during the last fiscal year. The number is the fourth highest on record since the 1986 amendments of the False Claims Act. This number was down from Fiscal Year 2016, when there were 702 qui…
Read more detail on Recent Employment Law posts –
