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False Claims Act
Update & Alert |
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Taxpayers
Against Fraud Education Fund | Washington, D.C. |
WWW.TAF.ORG
April 28, 2009 |
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 Senate Says "Yes" to
Integrity and "No" to Fraudsters
By
a vote of 31-61, the Senate
rejected an amendment
to
S.386
that would have capped whistleblower awards under
the False Claims Act. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said he
found the amendment ironic, noting that "those outside groups supporting
this amendment were in staunch opposition to the idea of the
Senate imposing any caps on executive compensation at companies
receiving bailout funds," but "[n]ow ... want to cap the
recovery of good-faith whistleblowers to come forward with
claims of fraud at companies that are ripping off American
taxpayers."
Senators
Patrick Leahy
(D-VT) and
Harry Reid
(D-NV) joined the chorus of support in favor of the
strengthening the False Claims Act, noting that the FCA had
returned over $22 billion of America's stolen money to U.S.
taxpayers by creating an astoundingly successful public-private
partnership between whistleblowers, private lawyers, and the
U.S. Government. |
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 House
Judiciary Votes Out
FCA Corrections Act
The House Judiciary
Committee has voted out the FCA Corrections Act of 2009 (H.R.
1788)
by a vote
of Committee 20-6. |
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 Massive
TARP Fraud Ahead?
Neal Barofsky, the Special Inspector General overseeing the TARP
bailout program, has issued a 247-page report warning Congress that
the stimulus package is
"inherently vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse" and that
"hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud"
could be lost
if government bailout funds are not closely monitored. Bottom
line: A strong False Claims Act is needed now more than ever.
>>
To read more |
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 Katrina Fraud Settlement
Lighthouse Disaster Relief and its
partners, Gary Heldreth and Kerry Farmer,
have agreed to pay $4 million to settle a False Claims Act
case in which it is charged they were paid
$5.3 million by the Department of Homeland Security
to build and operate a base-camp for Hurricane Katrina
first responders. The
work contracted was mostly not done or incomplete, and the
company was, in fact,
a fiction prior to contract submission. >>
To read more
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 Alta Colleges to Pay
$7 Million
Alta Colleges and its wholly-owned subsidiaries in
Texas have agreed to pay
$7 million to resolve FCA charges that the schools were
falsifying federal financial aid forms,
encouraging students to cheat on placement exams, and lying about
whether students would be certified to work in some fields.
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Alta Colleges has
12,000 students in six states. >>
To read more
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