New Criminal Division Review Process for Qui Tam Complaints Expands Main Justice Involvement and Threatens Greater Criminal Exposure in Whistleblower Investigations.
The Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, Leslie Caldwell, announced yesterday on September 17, 2014, that criminal prosecutors at the Justice Department in Washington will automatically review all new qui tam (i.e., whistleblower) complaints filed under the civil False Claims Act. In remarks delivered at a meeting of the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund Conference, AAG Caldwell revealed that the Criminal Division recently implemented a procedure so that all new qui tam complaints will be shared by the Civil Division with the Criminal Division as soon as the cases are filed. According to AAG Caldwell, “[e]xperienced prosecutors in the Fraud Section are immediately reviewing the qui tam cases when we receive them to determine whether to open a parallel criminal investigation. Those prosecutors then coordinate swiftly with the Civil Division and U.S. Attorney’s Offices about the best ways to proceed in the parallel investigations.”
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