COVID-19 Fraud

As federal and state governments fight the COVID-19 pandemic, they also will face waves of fraud. Unscrupulous profiteers will compound the pandemic’s misery by scheming to steal taxpayer money. In fact, they already have done so. COVID-19 has caused both health care and economic crises. With the unprecedented trillions of dollars that governments will be spending, the scale of fraud is likely to be unprecedented as well.

Rapidly emerging and evolving fraud schemes target our health care systems and programs, our government procurement channels, and our financial markets. We represent whistleblower clients in all of those areas. Specific areas where we expect to find COVID-19 fraud include:

• grants to pharmaceutical and biotech companies for vaccine development, research, and clinical trials for therapies and treatments
• purchases of medical and personal protective equipment, devices, testing kits, and drugs
• Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses
• stimulus funds targeted to specific industries
• bills to Medicare and Medicaid for hospital stays, procedures, or tests
• funds to nursing home operators  to enhance safety and compliance
• misrepresentations to investors and the marketplace by companies

This list is by no means exhaustive. Law enforcement and government agencies are working hard to protect public health and the public fisc from COVID-19 fraud. However, they need help. Whistleblowers are important now more than ever to help uncover scams, recover money for the government, and bring to justice those who exploit this crisis for illegal gain.

If you know of COVID-19 fraud, please contact us. Whistleblowers can be eligible for rewards under the False Claims Act or other whistleblower programs. To read more about COVID-19 fraud, please see the posts below.