Description
The New York State False Claims Act is a powerful weapon in the State's fight against fraud on the government. This statute, one of the most robust of its kind in the country, empowers the Attorney General, local governments and private individuals to bring a civil lawsuit - on behalf of the government - against any person or entity that defrauds the government. The consequences are significant: defendants are potentially liable for three times the financial loss from the fraud as well as civil penalties. Private citizens who bring successful qui tam actions under New York's False Claims Act can receive up to 30% of the recovery, in addition to their attorney's fees and expenses. Notably, New York's statute applies to not only Medicaid and other types of fraud where government dollars are involved, but also to tax fraud, which the Federal False Claims Act and many state false claims acts specifically exclude. The New York False Claims Act adopts a fundamentally different approach to fighting tax fraud than the one found in the federal IRS Whistleblower program.