The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it had obtained more than $2.2 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in fiscal year 2020. Recoveries since 1986, when Congress substantially strengthened the False Claims Act (“FCA”), now total more than $64 billion.

The vast majority of DOJ’s recovery in fiscal year 2020—roughly $1.8 billion of the total $2.2 billion recovered—came from matters relating to the health care industry. These cases spanned the health care sector and included fraud and false claims against the government by drug and medical device manufacturers, managed care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, hospice organizations, laboratories, and physicians. DOJ also recovered funds from fraud and false claims made against various other federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

Notably, of the $2.2 billion in settlements and judgments recovered by DOJ in fiscal year 2020, over $1.6 billion arose from lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the FCA. Whistleblowers filed 672 qui tam suits in fiscal year 2020, and the government paid out $309 million to individual whistleblowers who exposed fraud and false claims by bringing qui tam FCA actions. DOJ’s Acting Attorney General, acknowledging whistleblowers’ key role in bringing fraud and false claims to light, described whistleblowers as “critical to identifying and pursuing new and evolving fraud schemes that might otherwise remain undetected.”

Read the DOJ press release here.