Purchasing Fraud

Government procurement fraud affects the General Services Administration and all agencies and bureaus of the federal government, and it reaches state procurement efforts as well. Purchasing fraud can take several forms – from simple double-billing and purchase-order fraud to complex overbilling and pricing schemes and the provision of inferior products and services. The False Claims Act's qui tam provisions encourage whistleblowers to come forward with lawsuits seeking recovery of money obtained through these and other schemes involving government purchasing and procurement fraud.

For example, our firm represented a whistleblower in a case against the manufacturer of eyeglasses for the government. The company was defrauding the government by not performing the required safety testing on the glasses and by providing substandard product in violation of the contract specification. The case was settled for a substantial amount of money, and our whistleblower was awarded 23 percent of the proceeds.