Within days of gaveling in the 2022 Colorado legislative session, a coalition of state leaders introduced a bill to create the Colorado False Claims Act (the “CFCA”). The brainchild of Attorney General Phil Weiser, the CFCA represents Colorado’s commitment to protecting public funds and pursuing those who wrongfully appropriate taxpayer dollars. As the bill makes its way through the legislature, and with high chances of the CFCA becoming law, businesses would do well to familiarize themselves with the bill’s private right of action and steep penalties, both of which promise a new 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 (i.e., city and county) level claims.

The CFCA provides three new avenues to target those who wrongfully...

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