As the curtain closed on the 2022 legislative session, the Colorado General Assembly passed the Colorado False Claims Act (the “CFCA”). The CFCA represents Colorado’s commitment to protecting public funds and pursuing those who wrongfully appropriate taxpayer dollars.

The amended CFCA is now on its way to Governor Polis’ desk, who is all but guaranteed to sign it into law. With enactment imminent, businesses must familiarize themselves with the CFCA’s private right of action and significant penalties, both of which promise a wave of enforcement suits. The CFCA mirrors the federal False Claims Act in many respects. In particular, the CFCA targets those who:

• submit a false bill to a state or local government;
• falsify records relating to a false claim;
• maintain custody over money recovered from a false claim;
• falsify a receipt for governmental property;
• purchase public property which was not lawfully for sale; or
• falsify a record regarding an obligation owed to the state or local government.

But the CFCA is not notable just because it cracks down on people and businesses that lie or mislead in order to receive payments from the government—indeed, such conduct is already unlawful. Rather, the CFCA’s most impactful features promise to be its novel enforcement scheme, extensive penalties and the inclusion of local (ie: city and county) level claims.

The CFCA provides two new avenues to target those who wrongfully seek government funds. First, the Colorado attorney general has...

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