On this episode of The Bracewell Sidebar, hosts Matthew Nielsen and Phil Bezanson talk with Bob Wagman about criminal investigations involving alleged misconduct connected with government programs. Bob is a partner in Bracewell’s Washington DC, where he leads our government contracts practice.
Can you lay out who are government contractors and how do you get to be a government contractor?
Just about anybody can be a government contractor. The government buys everything and anything ranging from fighter jets to aircraft carriers, to pens and pencils, coffee, food, cars, fuel. Last year, they spent $580 billion on goods and services. The government is probably the biggest consumer of just about everything there is out there. Another thing to think about is government money is pretty much in everything these days. A lot of people can find themselves subject to government investigation without even thinking about being a government contractor or getting involved in doing government business.
What is the False Claims Act, and how does it interact with when there is government fraud?
The False Claims Act was signed into law after the Civil War in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. It was rarely used until the 1980s where they amended the False Claims Act. Some of the big provisions were to expand the qui tam provisions. A whistleblower can file a lawsuit in the name of the government. It gets filed “under seal”. The Department of Justice decides whether or not they're going to take go...
PHOTOS: COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION OF SINGAPORE SINGAPORE – Three online retailers have been caught using misleading features to influence shoppers by Singapore’s consumer and competition...