False Claims Cases/"Qui Tam" Litigation
We try cases under the US False Claims Act and also under the California False Claims Act. In these cases we represent private individuals who have information about fraudulent schemes that others have used to overcharge a government agency for work or services. Typically, the private individual is an employee or former employee of a company that has defrauded a particular government agency either by receiving money that was never owed or by withholding excess funds that should have been returned. We help this private individual to "relate" the undetected fraud to the appropriate government investigators, and we can then bring a "qui tam" lawsuit under the proper false claims statutes in order to recoup the ill-gotten sums and other damages from the wrongdoer. If we succeed and obtain a recovery, part of it (usually 15% to 25%) can be awarded to the private individual who exposed the fraud, and the remainder is returned to the government agency that was defrauded in the first place. We litigate these cases on a contingency basis. These cases can sometimes yield very large recoveries, and they serve the public interest by exposing, punishing, and discouraging fraud against public agencies that are funded with our taxpayer dollars. If you know about a scheme to defraud a government agency of money and want to pursue a recovery, please contact us in strict confidence at admin@maldonadomarkham.com.
