This year continued the trend of aggressive False Claims Act
(FCA) enforcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and high
volumes of qui tam lawsuits brought by whistleblowers. In
fiscal year 2015, the DOJ marked the fourth year in a row that it
recovered over $3.5 billion in FCA settlements and judgments. These
recoveries came largely from the healthcare ($1.9 billion) and
government contracting ($1.1 billion) industries. Recoveries in the
financial services industry accounted for only $365 million in
2015, well below the $3 billion recovered last year, as 2015
brought fewer record-setting mortgage settlements.
While the number of qui tams filed in 2015 dipped to
632, the lowest it has been since 2010, the amount of money awarded
to relators reached a record high, with a marked increase in the
total relators' shares for cases in which the United States
declined to intervene. Such recovery statistics make the number of
whistleblower-driven FCA actions unlikely to
