At the 2023 Qui Tam Conference hosted by the Federal Bar Association, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) celebrated whistleblowers and talked about the False Claims Act’s success in a keynote address.
Grassley is a longtime supporter of whistleblowers and was a driving force behind 1986 amendments that modernized the False Claims Act. He began his pre-recorded speech by recognizing that this year is the 160th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the False Claims Act in 1863. Grassley called the False Claims Act the “government’s most powerful tool in fighting and deterring fraud” and throughout his speech pointed to the amount of money that the Act has recovered for taxpayers.
“As we all know, the key to the success of the False Claims Act is that it allows whistleblowers to stand in the shoes of the federal government, and then sue fraudsters,” Grassley told the audience.The Qui Tam provisions of the False Claims Act enable private citizens to file lawsuits on behalf of the government if they know of an individual or company defrauding the government. Qui Tam whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 15 and 30% of the government’s recovery, if one occurs.
Grassley mentioned his role in enacting the 1986 amendments and voiced concerns about how the Act is “constantly under attack” from certain interpretations in the courts. He also highlighted the DOJ’s data from Fiscal Year 2022, which revealed that whistleblower lawsuits led to over $1.9 billion...
This story is the second in an ongoing series on the Cost of Fraud, as Open the Books tallies the hidden fees on American tax returns. Click here to read the first story on fraudulent autism billi...