A civil investigative demand (CID) is a tool, like a subpoena, that the government uses to obtain documents and information to investigate potential violations of the False Claims Act.
The False Claims Act expressly authorizes the government to use civil investigative demands in False Claims Act investigations and describes the process the government must follow, 31 U.S.C. § 3733. Through a CID, the government can require any person or entity to:
The United States may investigate potential violations of the False Claims Act on its own initiative or after the filing of a qui tam complaint, as we’ve discussed in other posts. CIDs are used only during the government’s pre-litigation investigation: the government may issue a CID only before filing a complaint in a government initiated action or before electing to intervene in a qui tam action. Once the government begins litigating against a defendant, discovery proceeds under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Parties receiving a civil investigative demand often will not know why the demand has been issued: although the False Claims Act requires the CID to “state the nature of the conduct” being investigated, the descriptions the government provides are usually highly generalized. Neither will parties receiving CIDs know whether the CID has been issued because the government is investigating a sealed qui tam...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...