Over Half of the FY2022 Dollars Recovered Under the False Claims Act Were in Declined Qui Tam Actions

Washington, DC — On February 7, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported its False Claims Act (FCA) statistics for fiscal year (FY) 2022. DOJ reported more than $2.2 billion was recovered from both settlements and judgments in FY2022. DOJ’s press release highlights FY2022 brought in the second-highest number of settlements in history. While each case is noteworthy in the ongoing battle against fraud, the most telling statistic in DOJ’s report is that for the first time, the majority of all dollars recovered in FY2022 were from declined qui tam actions.

“The modern-day success of declined qui tam actions honors the original intent behind the False Claims Act,” explained Jeb White, President of Taxpayers Against Fraud. “When Congress passed the Act 160 years ago, it sought to enlist the help of the private citizenry to investigate and hold accountable those who pilfer government funds. Relators and their counsel have answered the call and moved forward with declined qui tam actions that recovered nearly $1.2 billion from alleged FCA violators in FY2022.”

Of the remaining FY2022 recoveries, seventy-six percent of those recoveries came from intervened FCA qui tam actions, where the government and the relators jointly pursued the wrongdoers. However, the $776 million recovered was an 18-year-low and was well below the average recovery amount for the past decade of $2.5 billion per year. Recoveries from intervened FCA qui tam actions have decreased each of the past six years.

The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is also evident in DOJ’s numbers with additional government time and resources expended in initiating its own FCA cases in response to increased fraud during the pandemic. Of note, government-initiated FCA actions reached a 30-year-high in FY2022, while filings of new FCA qui tam actions in FY2022 held relatively constant at 652 filings, in line with the recent statistics.

“The DOJ’s statistics evidence the important role whistleblowers play in unmasking complex fraud schemes,” said White. “These numbers send a strong message that our fraud-fighting community will move forward against the corporate Goliaths who seek to game the system to the detriment of law-abiding citizens and businesses.”

TAF recently published “Fraud By the Numbers in 2022.” a deep-dive look into relevant fraud statistics. To view this report, you can click here.

For more information on this topic, please contact James King at [email protected].