DOJ Receives over $3 Billion from FCA Settlements and Judgments in Fiscal Year 2019

The U.S. Department of Justice reported obtaining more than $3 billion through settlements and judgments in False Claims Act (FCA) cases in the fiscal year 2019.

Since 1986, the DOJ has collected a total of $62 billion from civil FCA cases.  In 2019, a vast majority of recoveries stemmed from cases in the healthcare industry.  The Government recovered a total of $2.6 billion from the healthcare industry alone in 2019, marking the “tenth consecutive year” that the amount was over $2 billion. 

Other significant areas, include qui tam actions. In qui tam actions, a private party, or relator, sues on behalf of the Government to obtain recoveries for false claims submitted to the government and are often entitled to a portion of the judgments or settlements if the case prevails.  In 2019, the Government received $2.1 billion from qui tam suits across all industries.  If the qui tam action is successful, Relators often receive between 15 and 30 percent of the recovery.  In fiscal year 2019, Relators received $265 million from judgments and settlements in these cases. 

Finally, 633 qui tam actions were filed in 2019, which was on par with the 645 qui tam actions filed in 2018.