As some employees in Utah and the West Coast know, it is crucial to seek help from an experienced whistleblower lawyer when faced with knowledge of a potential federal False Claims Act violation. But why is it important to recognize corporate fraud and act accordingly?
Quite simply, it comes down to the individual employee, their standards of ethics, and their willingness to do nothing as their place of employment commits serious, illegal acts of fraud with wide-ranging consequences.
The False Claims Act (“FCA”) and other whistleblower laws incentivize integrity in individual employees in order to expose fraud against taxpayer-funded programs. The FCA, the oldest of these programs in the United States, is the most effective tool the government has to recover the billions of taxpayer dollars stolen through corporate fraud each year. Its success has spurred similar state laws and has led to the creation of whistleblower-incentivized programs at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Internal Revenue Service, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Part of the reason why incentivized whistleblower laws work so well is that, unlike a government hotline set up to receive tips regarding fraud, the government cannot ignore cases brought under the False Claims Act, SEC, IRS, or CFTC whistleblower laws; such cases must be investigated. Additionally, the laws grant extensive protections to the employee seeking to bring fraud to the attention of the proper authorities.
In order to present the strongest possible allegations of fraud to the government, whistleblowers should seek legal representation from an experienced whistleblower attorney. If you are aware of fraud involving a taxpayer-funded program, contact me at (801) 901-3470 to discuss your case further.