CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Grayson
Wants Congress to Limit Time False Claims Act Cases Are Under Seal
21 Corporate Crime Reporter 26, June 19, 2007
Alan Grayson, the Iraq War False Claims Act plaintiffs’ attorney of record,
wants Congress to limit the time such a case can remain under seal.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Grayson said that after months and months, the vast
majority of Iraq War False Claims Act cases remain under seal.
And he blamed the Bush Justice Department.
The False Claims Act requires whistleblower cases to be kept under seal for 60 days.
But “thanks to extensions that the Bush Administration has obtained, those 60 days have become 60 weeks, and are heading toward 60 months,” Grayson told the subcommittee.
“Although the judges almost always rubber-stamp these extensions, in one recent case against KBR, the judge refused to do so, and the case was unsealed,” Grayson said.
Grayson said that only four such cases have been unsealed, he is attorney of record in all of them, and that three of them are against KBR.
“Needless to say, there have been far more than four instances of war profiteering in Iraq,” Grayson said. “Billions of dollars are missing, and many more billions wasted.”
Grayson called on Congress to limit the time such a case can remain under seal to one year.
“To prevent the abuse of the sealing provision, there should be a firm limit on extensions,” Grayson said. “Certainly, one year is enough. If the Executive Branch simply wants more time to investigate a case, and can show good cause, it might have that extra time, but not at the expense of keeping the public and Congress in the dark. The seal is meant to help uncover fraud, not to bury it.”
Grayson accused the Justice Department of doing “virtually nothing to pursue such cases.”
“It has settled two cases, without litigation, for pennies on the dollar,” Grayson said. “It has declined to prosecute nine more cases. All the others remain under seal. In our fifth year of the War in Iraq, the Bush Administration has not litigated a single case against any war profiteer under the False Claims Act. It evidently has not even sued any U.S. contractor in Iraq, for breach of contract. Two years ago, Senator Grassley wrote to the Attorney General, asking why the Administration was taking no action in such cases. There was no reply. For all the Bush Administration claims to do in the war against terrorism, it is a no-show in the war against war profiteers.”
Grayson called on Congress to require the Justice Department to participate in all war profiteering cases “whenever the whistleblower complaint establishes a prima facie case of fraud.”
Barry Sabin, an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division, denied the Department was burying the cases by seeking seal extensions.
He said there were a number of factors that lead to the lack of action on the cases including – the lack of verifiable evidence set forth in the complaint, the lack of timely cooperation by counsel for the relator, the difficulty of gathering evidence in the international arena, especially in war zones, and the lack of cooperation of defendants and third parties.
Sabin did admit that the unit that handles False Claims Act cases at the Justice Department is staffed by a meager 13 line attorneys and three supervisors – and the various line attorneys in the field who handle the cases.
Grayson seemed perturbed that the Justice Department couldn’t send one of those attorneys up to Congress to testify – and instead sent someone up from the Criminal Division.
“Until now, there has never been an instance under the False Claims Act in the entire 144 year history where an entire class of cases has remained under seal for years and years,” Grayson said. “The Iraq False Claims Act cases have remained under seal for years and years, even though the statute says 60 days is the proscribed period. And Mr. Sabin is in the Criminal Division. He has no responsibility regarding the civil False Claims Act. And so he is literally not competent to testify about this.”
But Sabin said he was briefed by his colleagues in the Civil Division before preparing his testimony.
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