Other Fraud

There are a number of other areas of false claims made to the U.S. Government  besides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor fraud and Medicare/Medicaid fraud.   This webpage contains examples of these other areas, but is not intended to be a comprehensive listing of all categories that can involve false claims.

Lending and loan Applications: False statements made in loan applications to federal agencies violate the False Claims Act.  This same principle applies to loan applications made to commercial banks where the federal government guarantees the loan and the bank makes a demand for repayment to the federal government.

Insurance: False statements submitted to a government insurance program, i.e., flood insurance, constitutes a false claim under the False Claims Act.

Environment Provisions: Contractors who knowingly fail to satisfy the environmental compliance requirements of a government contract, but seek payment as if it has been fully performed, have violated the False Claims Act.

Important Government Policies: Government contracts frequently have a variety of clauses and requirements that go beyond the quantity and quality of the items specified.  Some of these policies are contained in the Federal Acquisition Regulations and are incorporated by reference into the government contract.  Other policies are contained in separate laws, such as the Buy American Act, which requires that domestic components of certain types of government purchases must equal a specified percentage.  If a contractor violates these policies and the violation is material to a decision of the government to pay the claim for services or goods provided, the contractor may have violated the False Claims Act.

Federal Government Construction: The federal government has numerous construction projects to build roads, government buildings, etc.  Contractors who engage in fraudulent practices, such as over-inflating costs or failing to follow the provisions of the contract in terms of quality or quantity of materials called for in the contract, could be liable under the False Claims Act.

Custom Duties: The government imposes custom duties on imports into the U.S.  Individuals or companies that fail to declare all of the items that are imported into the U.S. can be liable under the False Claims Act.

Royalties: Companies pay the U.S. Government royalties to extract oil, gas, minerals or timber from U.S. government owned lands.  In some instances, the companies may attempt to undervalue the value of the items extracted from the land to minimize the royalties they must pay.  Such conduct violates the False Claims Act.