False Claims Act Whistleblower Rewards – General Information and Statistics through FY 2017

  • Approximately 10 percent of all government spending is lost to fraud. Because the government spends $4 trillion a year, the amount lost to fraud is $400 billion per year
  • False Claims Act (FCA) judgments and settlements have totaled $56 billion ($56,259,857,892) from 1986-2017, due largely to the help of whistleblowers. Of this amount, $40 billion ($40,645,761,148) was from FCA whistleblower cases brought by relators
  • Whistleblowers initiated 72% of the False Claims Act cases pursued by the DOJ. (In other words, only 28% of fraud cases against the government were uncovered without the help of whistleblowers)
  • The government paid whistleblowers rewards of over $6.6 billion ($6,609,407,455) for reporting fraud against the government
  • Each year, DOJ pays approximately $400 million in whistleblower rewards
  • The average whistleblower reward is $551,657

FCA Statistics for Healthcare Whistleblowers

  • The largest whistleblower reward in a healthcare fraud case was $150 million
  • The average whistleblower reward for reporting healthcare fraud is $691,918
  • The total amount recovered in whistleblower initiated fraud cases is over $30 billion ($30,394,268,694)
  • The portion of fraud cases against the government that are healthcare related is 83%
  • The total whistleblower rewards paid in healthcare cases is nearly $5 billion ($4,966,593,085)
  • The portion of healthcare fraud cases initiated by whistleblowers is 83% (In other words, only 17% of Medicare or Medicaid fraud cases are brought without being initiated by whistleblowers)
  • The portion of the amount recovered by the government given to whistleblowers as a reward is 16.34 (In other words, for every dollar recovered by the government in a whistleblower filed case, the government pays the whistleblower 16.34% of the proceeds as a reward; the False Claims Act provides awards of 15% to 25% of funds recovered)

FCA Statistics for Military Whistleblowers

  • The largest whistleblower reward in a military fraud case was $50 million
  • The average whistleblower reward for reporting military fraud is $349,468
  • The total amount recovered in whistleblower initiated fraud cases is over $3 billion ($3,231,690,672)
  • The total whistleblower rewards paid in military cases is nearly $550 million ($549,364,943)
  • The portion of the amount recovered by the government given to whistleblowers as a reward is 16.9% (In other words, for every dollar recovered by the government in a whistleblower filed case, the government pays the whistleblower 16.31% of the proceeds as a reward; the False Claims Act provides awards of 15% to 25% of funds recovered)
  • The portion of Military fraud cases initiated by whistleblowers is 55%

Miscellaneous

  • In 2005, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that it takes an average of 38 months for the DOJ to make a decision whether or not to intervene in a case (Mr. Hesch’s personal experience, however, is that DOJ typically takes 9-12 months to make a decision to decline or turn down a case, and takes longer for cases it intervenes in or accepts, and it is not unusual in larger cases for the government to take 5 years to make an intervention decision)
  • The DOJ recovers $13 for every $1 spent in investigating and pursuing Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases

Contact Mr. Hesch in complete confidence to find out if you are eligible for a reward. His contact information is included in the free e-books, or you can visit his website listed at the top of this document.

Sources:
DOJ Statistics for all FCA whistleblower cases for FY 2017
https://www.thebalance.com/how-trump-amended-obama-budget-4128986 (“The federal government will spend $4.037 trillion in FY 2017.”)

It Takes Time: The Need to Extend the Seal Period for Qui Tam Complaints Filed Under the False Claims Act, by Joel Hesch, 38 SEATTLE L. REV. 901 (2015) (“Each year, nearly 10% of all federal government spending is lost due to fraud”), located at http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2275&context=sulr