The federal False Claims Act (FCA), a law enacted during the Civil War in 1863, is still the government’s primary civil tool to combat the fraudulent use of government funds, ensure that taxpayer dollars are used appropriately, and guard the public fisc and trust. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has historically used the FCA to pursue fraudulently spent funds provided by the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other government research grant programs, and the Department of Defense and Department of State programs.
On October 6, 2021, the DOJ announced a new Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, stating that it will utilize the FCA to pursue cybersecurity-related fraud. The initiative seeks to hold accountable entities or individuals that put government information or systems at risk by:
knowingly providing deficient cybersecurity products or services;
knowingly misrepresenting their cybersecurity protocols; or
knowingly violating obligations to monitor and report cybersecurity incidents and breaches.1
Six months since the DOJ’s launch of the Cyber-Fraud Initiative, three significant False Claims Act cases involving allegations related to cybersecurity compliance have settled. Two of them involved services provided to the government by Comprehensive Health Services, Inc., and one involved services provided to the government by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc.
On March 8,...
Djibouti hosts a US naval base called Camp Lemonnier, the only American military facility of its kind in Africa. Amid a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war, a clip circulating in Ethiopia sho...