Who may Bring a Complaint under the False Claims Act?
The False Claims Act provides: • Any person who knows that a company or individual has financially defrauded the federal government to file a lawsuit for recovery of damages on the government’s behalf. (This does not include tax fraud) • People who file these lawsuits include employees, or former employees of companies that commit fraud, a competitor, a subcontractor or even a patient. • The complainant does not need personal knowledge of the fraud. • The lawsuit can be based on information they learned from a friend, a relative, a competitor, or others, so long as the information is not made public nor has the government brought suit False claims include case where the government does not pay directly to the dishonest company. • If a company cheats another company that receives funds from the federal government, it is the same as defrauding the government directly. All that is required is that some of the funds wrongfully obtained are paid or reimbursed by the federal government. This
