Earlier this week, the Department of Justice announced that it had recovered nearly $5 billion in settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act in fiscal year 2012. The $4.959 billion figure was a new record for a single year, eclipsing the previous one-year record by $1.7 billion.
In breaking down the $5 billion in recoveries, Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West highlighted health care fraud recoveries of $3 billion, a record amount, and the work of the DOJ-HHS Health Care Fraud and Enforcement Action Team (“HEAT”). The recoveries also included $1.4 billion in housing and mortgage-related cases. Fiscal year 2012 also set records for qui tam actions. Whistleblowers filed a record 650 actions in 2012 and DOJ recovered a record $3.3 billion in qui tam actions.
We can expect the Government to continue its aggressive pursuit of cases under the False Claims Act, which West called “the most powerful tool we have to deter and redress fraud.”