1E9Ct5D

Fraud 15 that the DOJ’s Criminal Division Fraud Section would begin to review filed civilFCA actions for purposes of potential parallel criminal investigation and enforcement.In her reported remarks, Assistant Attorney General Caldwell stated “[q]ui tam casesare a vital part of the Criminal Division’s future efforts” to combat fraud on thegovernment. 16 Accordingly, DOJ will now require all newly filed qui tam cases to beshared with criminal enforcers for evaluation for potential criminal investigation andprosecution. While this new policy is certainly consistent with the high priority beingassigned to enforcement of whistleblower and other claims under the FCA, there issubstantial question whether the policy will translate to even more aggravated civil andcriminal investigation of cases filed by relators. The fact that whistleblower cases will besubject to an additional level of review by experienced criminal fraud prosecutors shouldat least give pause to companies and officials who may not have taken the threat ofwhistleblower cases under the FCA as seriously as they should have in the past. Whilethere is a stark difference between cases that are accepted for civil prosecution underthe FCA and those satisfying the much more exacting standards required to support acriminal action, experience would suggest that more DOJ eyes on the same reportedclaims may pose at least some additional risk to targets of whistleblower filings.15 Press Release, U.S. Department of Justice, Remarks by Assistant Attorney General for the CriminalDivision Leslie R. Caldwell at the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund Conference (Sept. 17,2014), http://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/remarks-assistant-attorney-general-criminal-division-leslie-rcaldwell-taxpayers-against.16 Id.7