Time To Toughen Anti Fraud Laws And Increase Monetary Rewards To Whistleblowers
By Joel Hesch

Nearly ten percent of government spending is lost due to fraud. Recent court cases have chipped away at the False Claims Act - the government’s main weapon to counter government fraud. Now is the time to toughen, not relax anti-fraud laws. Fortunately, there is a bipartisan effort to pass legislation to strengthen this important anti-fraud tool and increase the opportunity for citizens to obtain large rewards for reporting fraud.

One of the country’s most prominent outside experts came out strongly in support of proposed amendments. Attorney Joel Hesch, 47, a law professor, former government fraud prosecutor, consultant to whistleblowers, and author of Whistleblowing: A Guide to Government Reward Programs (How to Collect Millions of Dollars for Reporting Fraud), who for 15 years helped administered the Department of Justice whistleblowing reward program, says the proposed amendments will “write a new chapter” on stopping fraud that impacts more than 20 government agencies. “These proposed anti-fraud amendments are good for business. Honest companies need not fear laws that punish fraud. Big companies who steal taxpayer funds should not be allowed to engage in conduct for which you or I would be sent to jail,” Hesch said.

The law already permits the government to pay huge rewards to citizens who step forward in the fight against fraud. In fact, $2 billion in rewards have already been paid. There are six major provisions in the proposed new law, all of which Hesch supports. Hesch is particularly happy to see that the law would:

1. Broaden the “original source exception” to allow more whistleblowers to be eligible for rewards even when some information about the fraud has already been made public (which had been tightened after a recent Supreme Court decision) and will now keep the defendant from being able to contest rewards,

2. Expand the definition of government funds to include fraud against quasi-governmental agencies like Amtrak or funds held in trust by organizations administering government funds such as in Iraq,

3. Extend the statute of limitations to ten years in all cases, from the current six to ten, and modifying the way those years are counted,

4. Increase protection of whistleblowers from retaliation,

5. Streamline procedures for issuing subpoenas during investigations, and

6. Allow government employees to pursue cases of fraud against their agency if the agency is unresponsive to their complaints about the fraud.

“This program has already brought the government $11 billion in revenue for an expenditure of only $2 billion—a 550 percent return on investment,” Hesch continued. “It makes both moral and economic sense to continue, strengthen, and expand it.”

Hesch has set us a website dedicated to equipping citizens in fighting fraud. See www.HowToReportFraud.com. The website identifies the many ways companies are cheating under the top 20 government programs and explains how citizens can recover significant monetary rewards for reporting fraud. It also has information for reporting other types of fraud affecting citizens, such as credit card fraud, identity theft, and immigration fraud.

Joel Hesch, Esq. is one of the leading national experts on fraud against the government, tax evasion, and whistleblower reward programs. He is a law school professor at Liberty University, a former Department of Justice official helping administer the nation’s whistleblower reward program, and author of a book written to guide citizens through the process of reporting fraud, named Whistleblowing: A Guide to Government Reward Programs (How to Collect Millions of Dollars for Reporting Fraud). He also has a website equipping citizens in the fight against fraud, with useful tips to prevent fraud and how to collect significant rewards for reporting fraud against the government. See http://www.HowToReportFraud.com<.cob-web.org:8888/a>

Tags: , , , , , ,

Related Posts