You found something at work. Billing for visits that never happened. Hours charged to a contract nobody worked. Most people sit with it for months, because reporting it feels like ending your own career.
There is a legal route built for this exact position. It is called qui tam, and it lets a private person sue on the government’s behalf and keep a share of what comes back.
The False Claims Act covers fraud against federal programs. California has its own version for state and local money. Both let a private person, called a relator, file the case.
If the government joins your case, your share generally runs 15 to 25 percent. If it passes and you carry the case yourself, the range moves up to about 25 to 30 percent. Going it alone is harder and slower, so the share is bigger. Damages in these cases get multiplied. Penalties then stack on top, one per claim. A billing scheme with thousands of claims can reach numbers far past what the fraud looks like at first.
This is the part that surprises people most. A qui tam complaint gets filed under seal. The defendant is not served and does not know. The government then investigates quietly while it decides whether to join.
The seal is supposed to last 60 days. In practice it often runs a year or longer as extensions pile up.
You cannot discuss the case during that stretch. Not with coworkers. Not with your employer. Breaking the seal can damage the case or end it. When you speak matters as much as what you know.
Only the first relator to file on a given fraud can recover. Someone else filing the same allegations a week ahead of you takes the claim, and your knowledge of it earns nothing.
A second rule blocks claims built on facts that are already public. Say the fraud showed up in a news story or an audit. Then you generally have to qualify as an original source. That means your knowledge is your own and adds something real to what is out there. Both rules reward moving early. Sitting on it for a year is the most common way people lose a case they had.
The law carries its own anti-retaliation rule. Say you get fired or demoted for lawful steps tied to a qui tam case. Remedies can include your job back and double back pay with interest. They can also cover related losses. That protection is real. It is not a force field. Employers still retaliate, then produce a tidy business reason for it. Keep records of your performance history before anything starts. The gap between before and after is what carries a retaliation claim.
Healthcare billing produces the largest share. Billing for visits that never happened. Coding a simple visit as an expensive one. Kickbacks paid for referrals. Government contracting is the other big source. Charging for labor nobody performed. Swapping in cheaper parts than the contract calls for. Signing off on rules the company ignored. Deadlines apply to all of it. A federal claim generally must be filed within six years of the violation. A longer path exists in some cases, with an outer limit of ten years.
Do not take documents you are not authorized to have. That single mistake damages more qui tam cases than any other. Write down what you saw, when, and who else knew.
Talk to a lawyer before you report it internally. Internal reporting often starts a clock you did not know about. Fraud cases can also draw a parallel criminal investigation. That changes how you should handle interviews. Our victim representation practice handles matters where someone was harmed and the institution would rather it stayed quiet.
Call 310-543-7708 before you file anything or tell anyone at work.
