Whistleblowers are responsible for recovering 70% of funds that companies are defrauding or cheating the government. In a recent study, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that in the last 15 years, it recovered $38.9 billion in funds back from companies that had defrauded or cheated Medicare, the Military and 20 other federal programs and agencies. It credited whistleblowers with reporting and recovering $27.2 billion, which is 70% of all fraud cases.
Because nearly 10% of all government spending is lost due to fraud, the Government established a whistleblower reward program that pays whistleblowers between 15% and 30% of the funds the government recovers back based upon whistleblowers reporting fraud against the Government. The program is very successful. In 2013 alone, whistleblowers were responsible for recovering $3 billion in government funds that had been lost to fraud. The Government paid the whistleblowers close to $400 million in rewards.
To be eligible for a reward, however, a whistleblower must do more than call a hotline. In fact, a whistleblower must hire an attorney to file a qui tam civil suit against the company. The Department of Justice is allowed time to investigate the fraud allegations and take over the lawsuit. If it prevails, the government pays the whistleblower a reward. The best cases for rewards are when the whistleblower works for the company committing fraud against the government or otherwise has inside or first-hand knowledge of the fraud.
For those interested in a further breakdown of the government’s fraud statistics, click here for FRAUD Statistics 2013 which is the Department of Justice fraud statistic sheet for 2013.
To learn more about the Department of Justice whistleblower reward program, visit our webpage at https://www.howtoreportfraud.com/report-fraud/.