Whistleblower Lawsuits
False Claims Act/SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission
If someone makes a false claim for payment to the federal government, or a false statement in support of a claim, a whistleblower can bring a qui tam claim pursuant to the False Claims Act (FCA) on behalf of the government, and share in the recovery. Employees or others with inside knowledge about companies engaging in Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare fraud can blow the whistle and share in the recovery. Even accidental overpayment can be subject to a whistleblower claim if the company does not refund the overpayment within specified time frames, usually 60 days of discovery or a reporting date. The recovery will be triple the amount that the government overpaid due to the fraud, plus between $10,781 and $21,563 per false claim or statement submitted to the government. Further, the FCA contains special provisions to prevent or compensate the employee from retaliation. States have similar false claims acts to recover funds when they are the victims of fraud, such as the Florida False Claims Act.
Like the FCA, the Dodd-Frank Act offers rewards to whistleblowers who expose financial fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rewards those who blow the whistle on securities violations, or on bribes paid to foreign officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Whistleblowers are entitled to 10 to 30 percent of any monetary recovery of over $1 million that the SEC obtains. Through a similar program, the Commodity Futures Trading Commision (CFTC) rewards those who blow the whistle on violations in commodity and currency exchanges. Special provisions protect the anonymity of the whistleblowers who expose financial fraud. Do Campo & Thornton keeps a potential financial whistleblower’s identity confidential; a whistleblower’s identity will never be revealed without prior consent, and will never be revealed if the whistleblower so chooses, even if a case is brought and an award won.
In their careers, do Campo & Thornton’s attorneys have won numerous whistleblower victories – for example, settlement on behalf of whistleblowers alleging fraud in a federal loan guarantee program, a dismissal of a state whistleblower action in the healthcare setting, and surviving dismissal of a federal whistleblower action. Do Campo & Thornton has won recoveries for clients in cases in the Southern District of Florida and the District of Columbia. (John Thornton is admited to practice in the District of Columbia courts, where claims of fraud on the federal government can often be brought.)
If you think you might have a whistleblower claim under any of these laws, do Campo & Thornton, P.A. would like to discuss your case with you, with no obligation and in complete confidentiality.