Everything is big in Texas.

Including fraud.

And fraud recoveries.

That’s according to a new report released this week from Taxpayers Against Fraud.

The report — Fighting Medicaid Fraud in Texas — finds that Texas has recovered a tremendous amount of money through enforcement of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act and the federal False Claims Act.

From 2006 through 2012, Texas recovered over $821 million for state and federal taxpayers after subtracting for relators’ shares and Texas State attorney fees and costs, the report found.

Nearly half of these recoveries – over $394 million – resulted from fraud cases in which Texas led the investigation and prosecution of the case.

And whistleblowers have played a critical role in these recoveries, with over $800 million of the $821 million in total state recoveries stemming from whistleblower-initiated cases.

“Texas has recovered a phenomenal amount of money in the last six years, and much of it is due solely to state-initiated action,” Patrick Burns of Taxpayers Against Fraud told Corporate Crime Reporter. “If Texas had waited for Department of Justice to bring home the bacon, there would be hundreds of millions of dollars less bacon in the state till.”

The report found that the total budget for the Texas Attorney General’s anti-fraud staff – which in the time frame reviewed has varied between $4.75 million and $8.45 million per year – is dwarfed by recoveries to the state generated by the work of this office.