Under Federal law, whistleblower recoveries can come through four different whistleblower recovery laws.  The Federal False Claims Act is the oldest of the laws and under this law the Federal Government has brought in approximately $30 Billion.  Under this law successful whistleblowers have been awarded over $3 Billion and these whistleblower rewards are expected to continue to expand as many states are enacting their own false claims act laws.  The Federal False Claims Act was recently amended by the Federal Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA) including expanding the reach of the Federal False Claims Act to include subcontractors working under a government contractor and other parties working with government contractors.  The Federal False Claims Act was also expanded protection for employee whistleblowers.   States have also been encouraged through economic incentives to enact their own Medicaid False Claims Act whistleblower recovery laws.  These state whistleblower recovery laws must be at least as strong as the Federal False Claims Act whistleblower reward laws for the state to receive the increased economic benefits from the Federal Medicaid Fraud Recovery Program.

Another Federal whistleblower recovery law is IRS Tax Fraud Whistleblower Reward Program under section 406 of the Internal Revenue Code.  This whistleblower recovery law includes significant economic incentives and protections for whistleblowers to encourage people with specialized knowledge of significant tax fraud to step forward and report the fraud.  These protections if used properly can protect whistleblowers from retaliation and allow whistleblowers to recover large amounts of money for being the first to properly report significant tax fraud.  

Two relatively new whistleblower recovery laws are section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act (SEC Whistleblower Bounty Actions), and section 23 of the Commodity Exchange Act (CFTC Whisteblower Bounty Actions).    These laws were passed in the wake of Financial Market Melt Down in 2008 and in response to massive fraud in the financial markets.  These whistleblower recovery laws are designed to encourage people with specialized knowledge of significant investment fraud, securities fraud, SEC violations, commodity futures fraud, violations of the foreign corrupt practices act, and other financial fraud.  These whistleblower reward laws were designed to protect whistleblowers that step up and blow the whistle on financial fraud.

Importantly, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the new SEC Whistleblower Incentive Program work together to reward whistleblowers with original and specialized knowledge and evidence of international business corporate bribery and illegal kickbacks.  These new international business whistleblower reward laws are part of a worldwide movement to expose and punish government corruption such as contract bribes, illegal kickbacks, and large scale international fraud.  These Foreign Corrupt Practices Act should help prevent government corruption in many countries including Russia, China, Mexico, and Brazil.

All of these whistleblower recovery laws have been recently passed or strengthened to provide additional protections and economic incentives to whistleblowers.  By contacting a whistleblower reward lawyer, a whistleblower can greatly increase their ability to make a recovery under these whistleblower recovery laws and use whistleblower protections to prevent or punish retaliation for reporting fraud.   

Government Spending and Health Care Spending Increase (Government Fraud Costs Tax Payers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars)

Government spending in the United States has been over Five Trillion Dollars $5,000,000,000,000 in a single year.  With large Medicaid costs and Medicare costs increasing each year, government spending is expected to continue to increase in the future.   As this number continues to increase, the number of fraudulent contractors, sub contractors, defense contractors, corporations, and health care providers committing Medicaid fraud, Medicare fraud, and other forms of fraud will continue to increase, unless new methods are used to identify and prevent fraud . From a taxpayer stand point, preventing government fraud can save hundreds of billions of dollars and whistleblower reward lawsuits are the most efficient and economical methods to prevent Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, IRS tax fraud, defense contractor fraud, foreign corrupt practices acts, and investment financial fraud. 

Governments have long had trouble with unscrupulous government contractors defrauding the government by providing defective goods, over billing services, and seeking payment for goods and services never provided.   The solution that many governments have created is to set up economic incentives for whistleblowers with inside information of fraudulent government contracts to blow the whistle on government contractors that are committing fraud.

Qui tam actions were used in the 13th century England as a way to enforce the King's laws. These actions have existed in the United States since colonial times, and were embraced by the first U.S. Congress as a way to enforce the laws when the new federal government had virtually no law enforcement officers. 

During the Civil War, corrupt military contractors were defrauding the United States Army out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and putting troops at risk by supplying troops with defective products and faulty war equipment. Illegal price gouging was a common practice and the armed forces of the United States suffered.  In response, Abraham Lincoln enacted the Federal Civil False Claims Act. A key provision of the act was known as qui tam.

This Act was weakened in 1943 during World War II while the government rushed to sign large military procurement contracts. However, it was strengthened again in 1986 after a long period of and increase in military spending as well as many stories of defense contractor price gouging and government waste.

Qui Tam Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits and Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits from Medicare Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Medicaid Whistleblower Reward False Claims Act Lawyer, Defense Contractor Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Whistleblower Reward SEC Bounty Action Lawyer, and Whistleblower Reward CFTC Lawyer