Every year, the federal U.S. government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on various goods and services, such as military spending, education, disaster relief, transportation, environmental protection and more. Much of this spending is paid directly to private contractors, state and local governments to fund various programs. What happens when someone tries to defraud the government?
Fraud against the U.S. government
When a public official chooses private companies or contractors for public projects, pay contractors or make changes to contracts, they are forbidden from receiving anything of benefit in exchange. They are also prohibited from receiving benefits from people associated with municipal bonds, such as underwriters, investment banks, financial advisors and financial firms. In other words, a government employee may not accept any sort of bribe or kickback, like ownership interests, priority status, discounts, gifts, gratuity payments and more. Furthermore, bribes and kickbacks cannot be given to a third party like a relative, friend or colleague.
Similarly, companies and individuals are guilty of fraud when they collude with each other to rig bids on government contractors. “Bid rigging” happens when a group of vendors or contractors submit artificially inflated bids. Then another member submits a lower—but still artificially inflated—bid, allowing them to profit off the rigged bids. While many government authorities require bidders to submit non-collusion affidavits, not all of them do. Violations can be enforced through the False Claims Act, among other legal avenues.
The DOJ has prosecuted multiple bribery, bid rigging and kickback cases, netting hundreds of millions in recovered money. Some of these funds are awarded to the qualified whistleblowers who file reports of misconduct and fraud.
If you know of someone committing fraud against the government, consider becoming a whistleblower. A knowledgeable whistleblower attorney at Kardell Law Group can explain your legal options: call today.
