On Tuesday, DOJ released its eagerly awaited False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, announcing that DOJ had obtained $5.6 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government. This was the second largest annual total in FCA history (only surpassed by
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COVID-19 Recovery: Are You Ready for the SIGPR?
By Susan Ebner on
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in 2020 and Congress responded with legislation to provide a variety of forms of relief to small and large businesses and nonprofits, as well as individuals. In addition to providing relief under vehicles such as the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL),…
Two Kinds of False Claims, the Same Bad Outcome
By Eric Whytsell on
Leo Tolstoy famously began his 1877 novel Anna Karenina with the observation, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Much the same could be said of government contractors that find themselves in hot water relating to false claims. Two recent settlements by government contractors remind us that there…
SBA Office of Inspector General Issues Management Report Advising of Fraud And Seeking Further SBA Oversight of COVID-19 Loans and Advances
By Roddy Stieger on
On July 28, 2020, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Management Alert raising concerns of potential fraud relating to the Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Advance grant programs. The OIG reported receiving more than 5,000 complaints of suspected incidents of fraud from financial institutions that had received the economic…
Expeditious Crackdowns on COVID-Relief Fraud
By Pete Schwingler on
In the span of mere days, the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested and charged numerous individuals from Virginia, Massachusetts, Texas, and Ohio, alleging that they fraudulently sought Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
At John F. Kennedy Airport, a Virginia couple was arrested on June 20…