An interesting new website by state Sen. Mark Obenshain has the goal of exposing waste, fraud and abuse in the Virginia Department of Transportation.
No question about it, government spending always results in a certain level of fraud, waste, and abuse. That is why we have tools like the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (Va. Code sec. 8.01-216.1 et seq.) Like the federal False Claims Act (31 U.S.C.S. sec. 3729 et seq.), the VFATA gives our Attorney General a powerful fraud-fighting tool, which can be used whenever someone is caught making a false claim to the Commonwealth for money.
When someone is caught violating its terms, they don’t just pay one time–they pay three times the amount of the damages sustained by the Commonwealth, because the VFATA requires treble damages. Further, the VFATA includes a civil penalty of between $5,500 and $11,000 for each individual false claim–this amount is added on top of the treble damages. Finally, defendants pay all attorney’s fees and costs of the prosecution.
Best of all, the statute provides that when individuals have first-hand, non-public knowledge of fraud on the Commonwealth, they have the authority to come forward, hire private counsel with experience in the VFATA, and work with their lawyer and the OAG to prosecute the case. Individuals who do this are eligible to receive a share of the Commonwealth’s recovery, usually somewhere between 15 and 30%.
In one of my recent cases, for example, my client, Nisar Siddiqui, has to date received just under $150,000 for information be brought to the Commonwealth’s attention through his qui tam suit. Because most qui tam cases begin when a person finds fraud on the government by their employer, the statute also contains protections for the employment of people who find fraud on the government in their workplace.
Simply put, people with first-hand, non-public knowledge of fraud against the Commonwealth should contact a private qui tam attorney with experience litigating Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act cases and/or federal False Claims Act cases. In addition to receiving compensation for sticking your neck out, you will do far, far more to rectify the larger problem of fraud on the state budget that way than you will be sending an email to your state Senator.
IMHO, the biggest factor leading to fraud on the Commonwealth is our complete lack of civil enforcement from the OAG. (That is, of course, outside of the award winning MFCU unit within the OAG). People doing business with Virginia have little reason to fear prosecution for wrongdoing–to date, the OAG has never initiated a non-health care VFATA case on its own.
It is interesting then, that instead of trying to do something to further the use of the VFATA, Sen. Obenschain would chose to put up his website.
He should be either (1) supporting John Brownlee for Attorney General of the Commonwealth or (2) using his influence to make VFATA enforcement an issue if he is serious about fighting back against fraud on our state budget.
I don’t mean to seem like I am picking on Sen. Obenschain, at least he is trying to do something. Senator, please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss.