On February 21, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in support of a whistleblower in a False Claims Act (FCA) case which had threatened to narrow the scope of the law and the ability of whistleblowers and the government to hold fraudsters accountable.
In Wisconsin Bell Inc. v. U.S. ex rel. Heath, the Supreme Court ruled that a whistleblower’s qui tam lawsuit alleging that Wisconsin Bell defrauded the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program may proceed because there are false claims at issue.
“This is an important victory to uphold the whistleblower (or qui tam) provisions of the False Claims Act,” says whistleblower attorney David Colapinto, founding partner of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto. “Fraudsters should be on notice that whenever they commit fraud against a government program enacted by Congress, whistleblowers are empowered to report and pursue fraud cases to protect the taxpayers and consumers who depend on federal programs like the E-Rate program.”
Wisconsin Bell had argued that there was no FCA liability in the case because the E-rate program, a Congressionalyl-mandated program to help certain schools and libraries afford internet and telecommunications, is administered by a private nonprofit organization and is funded by government-mandated payments made by private telecommunications carriers into the Universal Service Fund (USF).
The Court ruled, however, that because the U.S. Treasury had in fact provided $100 million to the USF, the...
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