Fraud By The Numbers Series
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The Success of The SEC Whistleblower Program
Of the major federal whistleblower programs, the SEC Whistleblower Program is the newest, dating back to only 2011. However, in this relatively short period of time, the program has grown quickly. In fact, the number of whistleblower tips has increased year-over-year, including an increase of over 32% in 2020. In addition to garnering an increasing…
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How The SEC Regulates $29 Trillion in Equities
Willie Sutton, a notorious bank robber in the 1930’s was once asked why he robbed banks. His answer, found on the FBI’s Famous Cases page, was: “Because that’s where the money is.” Today’s FBI identifies corporate fraud, including securities fraud, as one of its highest criminal priorities because of the potential for significant losses to…
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Diving Into Defense Fraud
September 11, 2001 ushered in a new era of U.S. defense spending, marked by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the last 20 years, the United States has spent more than $6.4 trillion on those wars. We do not know how much of this enormous sum has been lost to fraud. But as of…
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How 9/11 Recovery Fraud Was Stopped
Twenty years ago, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks devastated the United States, and began one of the largest cleanup and recovery efforts of the modern era. On this anniversary, we are mindful that whenever federal, state, and local governments provide relief money to help victims recover, these efforts are often ripe targets for fraudsters.…
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On National 401(k) Day, Remember the Role of Whistleblowers
Officially, today is National 401(k) day, but for approximately 60 million Americans who have such a plan and are relying on it for retirement, every day is 401(k) day. That’s 60 Million Americans with a reason to check the markets today. The 401(k) has played a big part in creating a generation of Americans who…
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The Billions Lost to Healthcare Fraud
The Government Accountability Office reports that in fiscal year 2019, approximately $46.2 billion in improper payments were made in the Medicare program. And this may even be a conservative estimate! As we will discuss in a future post, other experts have opined that the amount lost to improper payments is two to three times the…
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Let’s Dive Into Government-Funded Healthcare Programs
For the next few days, we are going to discuss one of the biggest sources of government spending: healthcare. In particular, we are going to drill down on numbers associated with Medicare, Medicaid, and other government-sponsored healthcare programs. The U.S. Government spent $1.3 trillion on Medicare in fiscal year 2020, making it by far the…
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Looking at the Cost of Air Pollution on Clean Air Day
Today is September 7, recognized as Clean Air Day. Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and respiratory infections.[1] That is the population of Bulgaria,[2] Tennessee,[3] or Los Angeles and Chicago.[4] In addition to…
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How Many Lawyers Are Involved in Prosecuting False Claims Act Cases?
Today, Labor Day, is an appropriate moment to review the work required and resources deployed to handle major fraud cases, such as those filed under the False Claims Act. Since a False Claims Act case is a filing with a court, we are going to analyze the number of lawyers involved in prosecuting False Claims…
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False Claims Act Enforcement: $20 Returned for Every $1 Spent
The False Claims Act and the mechanism that incentivizes integrity by rewarding whistleblowers who come forward with information about fraud on the government, is a great investment. How good is the rate of return on investment? According to a study conducted by Jack A. Mayer, prepared for Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund in 2013 that…
