False Claims Act seen as key tool to enforce Trump tariffs
Pending legal challenges not considered immediate threat
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While their form has been in flux — a 25-percent surcharge on steel and aluminum imports is in, while across-the-board levies on goods from Canada and Mexico are out, at least for now — tariffs will seemingly be a fact of life in the second Trump administration.
As the tariffs take effect, the incentive to try to evade them will follow. Eventually, attorneys agree, that will mean a new wave of “reverse” False Claims Act cases: Instead of taking too much from the government, the alleged violation will be giving too little.
Indeed, to the extent that there are tea leaves to be read, the second Trump administration may be gearing up to use the False Claims Act even more aggressively than it had in its first term.
Among the clues are remarks by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Granston in a “fireside chat” at a recent conference focused on the False Claims Act. The comments were perceived as extending an open invitation to relators’ attorneys to bring FCA qui tam actions on behalf of whistleblowers to combat customs duty evasion.
Perhaps an even stronger signal — though not immediately recognizable as related — came from an executive order the president issued on his second day in office.
The order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunities” targets diversity, equity...
The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago filed a lawsuit last month alleging that a group of conspirators engaged in a racketeering scheme to defraud the archdiocese by falsely claiming priest sexual a...