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The Price Of Private Enforcement Under The False Claims Act, David Y. Kwok

David Y Kwok

Private plaintiffs and their attorneys are motivated at least in part by monetary awards, but what is the appropriate award for litigation? I consider the case of the False Claims Act, through which the U.S. government recovers losses due to fraud by paying a bounty to whistleblowers. These whistleblowers and their attorneys generally receive a minimum 15% bounty in successful cases. Utilizing a data set of over 3000 fraud cases, I present observational evidence that whistleblowers are reluctant to bring cases valued under $440,000 and that they would be more likely to do so given a higher bounty percentage. This …