False Claims Act

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US President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, under whose presidency the United States Congress passed the False Claims Act on March 2, 1863 in order to effectively counteract massive fraud against army suppliers during the American Civil War.

The False Claims Act (mutatis mutandis: law against unjustified claims ), 31 United States Code , also §§ 3729-3733 Lincoln Law called, is in the strict sense, an American be held liable federal law by which people and organizations and to claim damages by civil penalties if they could realize unjustified claims through fraud and other criminal machinations to the detriment of the US government .

What is special about the law is the additional encouragement of informants to uncover such machinations and frauds through a judicial complaint , as the law awards whistleblowers a portion, usually between 15 and 25 percent, of the damage payments to the state obtained through their information as a reward .

The whistleblower , the English whistleblower , who, as a relator , as the legal term is used, files a lawsuit against one or more perpetrators of the government, usually with the help of specialized law firms , acts in favor of the government and because of the reward for himself. Such rewards for investigators from Misconduct through advertisements or the filing of a lawsuit is familiar to both Roman and old Anglo-Saxon and finally American law.

According to a legal formula from the English Middle Ages, the relator is qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur , (German: the one who complains in this matter for the king as well as for himself ). Relevant laws, legal customs and the form of action are also briefly referred to as qui tam according to this formula . For more information, see the German article Qui tam and, above all, the very detailed English article.

The current Qui tam regulation reads in the law: A person may bring a civil action for a violation of section 3729 for the person and for the United States Government .

The Ministry of Justice can join the lawsuit. If the ministry decides not to join the lawsuit, but the relator still achieves a success, it will even be awarded between 25 and 30 percent of the compensation payment received.

history

The False Claims Act in its original form was passed by Congress on March 2, 1863 during the American Civil War under President Abraham Lincoln , hence the often used name Lincoln Law . The widespread claim that Lincoln himself initiated the law has meanwhile been disproved. The aim of the initiative was to stop the fraudulent machinations of unscrupulous traders who delivered bad rifles and ammunition, sick pack horses , spoiled food, etc. to the Union army . The law was made unusable in 1943, but has been tightened again since 1986 and has been a powerful tool for preventing fraud against the government ever since.

The Financial Dimension of the False Claim Act since its 1986 reform

Since the major reform of the regime in 1986, from October 1, 1987 to September 30, 2015, of the $ 48,370,504,253 that the United States Department of Justice collected from criminals, $ 33,230,410,007 has been based on Qui tam lawsuits. Of the 33 billion dollars that were collected with the help of whistleblowers, $ 5,328,756,494 were distributed to the relators as a reward. During this time, the government was able to bring 4,734 cases from its own investigations to court, and 10,593 cases were pending by relators. $ 31,074,452,032 was made in lawsuits by relators in which the government joined the lawsuit on the part of the relator or otherwise supported it and rewarded it with $ 4.7 billion. $ 2,155,957,974 was raised in Relators' lawsuits in which the lawsuit was unsupported by the government but rewarded with $ 538 million for its success.

States

The following US states have also enacted corresponding laws : California , Colorado , Connecticut , Delaware , District of Columbia , Florida , Georgia , Hawaii , Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Louisiana , Maryland , Massachusetts , Michigan , Minnesota , Montana , Nevada , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New Mexico , New York , North Carolina , Oklahoma , Rhode Island , Tennessee , Texas , Virginia , Wisconsin , Washington

literature

comment

  • Claire M. Sylvia: The False Claims Act: Fraud Against The Government, 2d , Thomson West

Essays

Web links

The paragraphs of 31 United States Code §§ 3729-3733 at uscode.house.gov

Information pages

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; accessed April 7, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.taf.org
  2. ↑ Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens (98-1828), 529 US 765 (2000) 162 F.3d 195, May 22, 2000, footnote 1.
  3. ↑ Federal False Claims Act - Title 31 - MONEY AND FINANCE SUBTITLE III. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CHAPTER 37. CLAIMS SUBCHAPTER III. CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 31 USCS | 3730 (1994) Civil actions for false claims (b) (1) sentence 1
  4. ↑ http://corporate.findlaw.com/law-library/the-false-claims-act.html#anchor33818 accessed on April 7, 2016
  5. ^ Simon Gerdemann: Transatlantic Whistleblowing . Ed .: Mohr Siebeck. 1st edition. Tübingen, ISBN 3-16-155916-9 .
  6. ↑ http://www.phillipsandcohen.com/False-Claims-Act-History/ ; accessed on April 7, 2016
  7. ↑ FRAUD STATISTICS - OVERVIEW October 1, 1987 - September 30, 2015 Civil Division, US Department of Justice from 11/23/2015 ; PDF file accessed April 7, 2016
  8. ↑ http://www.whistleblowerlaws.com/false-claims-act/ ; accessed on April 7, 2016