State and local governments play a critical role in ensuring that businesses and individuals are held accountable if they commit healthcare fraud, financial fraud, government contract fraud, and more. For whistleblowers, state governments can offer additional opportunities to report wrongdoing.
Where government funds are at stake – and state and local government spending reaching $3 trillion annually – more than 30 states have False Claims Acts that are modeled after the federal False Claims Act. Whistleblowers with information about healthcare fraud are often involved in state enforcement efforts, whether because state Medicaid dollars are at stake, or in states that offer rewards for whistleblowers reporting fraud against private insurance companies.
State enforcement often goes hand-in-hand with federal enforcement, whether in cases involving Medicaid, government purchasing, or even financial regulation. Notably, the SEC, CFTC, and AML Whistleblower Reward programs recognize recoveries by state authorities as “related actions,” potentially entitling whistleblowers to a share of state recoveries.
In addition to combined federal-state actions, states may join forces to bring coordinated actions against a defendant. Such coordinated state enforcement played a significant role this past year, notably in consumer fraud cases otherwise omitted from this whistleblower-focused list. Such coordinated multi-state consumer fraud recoveries include a settlement valued at $1.85...
Tehran – Saba: The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the subversive actions taken by the rulers of Abu Dhabi against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Last night, Tasnim News Agency reported that the...