WASHINGTON, D.C. - Whistleblowers received more than $319 million in rewards in fiscal year 2003, from more than $2 billion that was recovered by Government suits and investigations of fraud against the United States under the False Claims Act.

A total of more than $12 billion has been recovered by the Government since Congress substantially strengthened the Act in 1986, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The record $2.1 billion recovered in 2003 represents a 75 percent increase over the previous year's $1.1 billion in recoveries.

More than 70 percent of the $2.1 billion FY 2003 total, approximately $1.48 billion, is associated with whistleblower suits initiated under the Qui Tam provisions of the False Claims Act, according to a DOJ news release.

The 2003 Qui Tam cases "run the gamut of federally funded programs from Medicare and Medicaid to defense contracts, gas leases and agricultural subsidies" the DOJ release states. When the United States intervenes in an action, the person filing the suit can recover from 15 to 25 percent of any settlement or judgment attributable to the fraud identified by the whistleblower. The percentage increases up to 30 per cent if the United States declines to intervene and the whistleblower pursues the action alone, the Government noted in the release.

Health care fraud represented the major share of 2003 recoveries, some $1.7 billion of the $2.1 billion. The health care total includes whistleblower claims and independent fraud investigations initiated by the United States. The largest recoveries were made for the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") and its Medicare and Medicaid programs. Substantial recoveries also were made for the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; the Department of Defense, for its TRICARE insurance program; the Department of Veterans Affairs; and the Railroad Retirement Board.

Some $299 million was recovered under defense procurement fraud and another $49 million was recovered for the Department of the Interior, according to the DOJ news release.

Among larger DOJ recoveries in fiscal year 2003:

• $47.7 million which went to the whistleblower in a $280 million settlement with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP, to resolve allegations that it conspired with health care providers to charge federally funded insurance programs for free samples of it's prostate cancer drug, Zoladex, and otherwise inflated the drug price in violation of the Prescription Drug Marketing Act.
• $27.2 million went to the whistleblower in a $191 million settlement with Northrop Grumman Corporation ("Northrup") to resolve three fraud investigations alleging that its predecessor, TRW, fraudulently overcharged the government on Department of Defense and National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA") contracts, and that Northrop sold defective military equipment to the Navy or mischarged for the equipment. Newport News Shipbuilding which Northrop acquired in November 2001, was alleged to have carried out the two Navy equipment schemes.
• Whistleblowers received a combined share of $154 million from an earlier civil settlement; criminal guilty plea, and a related administrative settlement in connection with $641 million that was paid by HCA Inc. for cost report fraud, kickback payments to physicians and overbilling Medicare for wound care centers. In total HCA, Inc. has paid $1.7 billion to the United States and whistleblowers.
• $143 million was paid by Bayer Corporation to resolve whistleblower allegations that the drug manufacturer defrauded the Medicaid and Public Health Service programs by relabeling products sold to a health maintenance organization at deeply discounted rates and then concealing the discounts to avoid paying required rebates.
• $51 million was paid to the government by Tenet Healthcare Corporation and Tenet HealthSystems Hospitals, Inc. ("Tenent") to settle allegations that Tenet's Redding, California facility performed unnecessary cardiac procedures billed to Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE.
• $49 million was paid by Endovascular Technologies, Inc. ("Endovascular"), a subsidiary of Guidant Corp., to settle allegations that it failed to report thousands of adverse incidents involving its "Ancure" cardiac device, involving submission of tens of millions of dollars of false claims for Medicare, Medicaid and VA benefits involving the device.
• $49 million was paid by Shell Oil Company to settle allegations that it improperly vented and flared gas from Interior Department offshore leases. Shell also underreported and underpaid royalties on the vented and flared gas, it was alleged.

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