False Claims Act Recoveries Double in One Year to $9 Billion

In fiscal year 2012, federal and state False Claims Act cases returned over $9 billion back to the government – a record and over twice the $4 billion from last year.

The $9 billion sum consists of criminal fines as well as several large state False Claims Act settlements, including over $300 million recovered by the State of California in a single Medicaid HMO case.

FY 2012 saw increased recoveries under state False Claims Act laws patterned after the federal statute, as well as increased criminal fines associated with larger federal False Claims Act cases.

Taxpayers Against Fraud’s today released a chart documenting the 30 largest settlements from 2012.

The four largest were GlaxoSmithKline ($3 billion), Abbot Laboratories ($1.5 billion), Bank of America ($1 billion), and Merck ($950 million).

Of the 30 largest settlements, 28 are whistleblower related.

Taxpayer Against Fraud’s Patrick Burns attributed the doubling to bigger pharmaceutical cases and “whole new seams” of False Claims Act cases – including banking and mortgage fraud.

Burns said that fiscal year 2013 probably won’t see another doubling over the $9 billion recovered this year. But he said that $3.5 billion in already reported False Claims Act settlement “lie just ahead.”

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