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Qui Tam

: Virginia Qui Tam Law

Cuccinelli Investigates Grant Fraud at the University of Virginia

By Zachary A. Kitts

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The D.C. Examiner has a story today about Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issuing a Civil Investigative Demand ("CID") to the University of Virginia as part of an investigation into grant fraud. You can read Bill Flook's excellent story here.

The story also has a quote from state Sen. Chap Peterson (D-Fairfax) about the CID, which he called "very grasping." Peterson goes on to say:

"He has a constitutional duty to represent the state, [to] represent the taxpayer. A lot of this just seems to me agenda-driven."

First of all, Chap has no clue--absolutely no clue--about civil investigative demands in general. I am sure he has even less clue of a clue about the purposes, scope, and utility of the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (Va. Code 8.01-216.1 et seq.)

Third, Chap is clearly out of touch with what "representing the taxpayers" entails. Believe it or not Chap, there are a great many of us taxpayers that feel like policing the use of state grant money IS representing the taxpayer. A certain percentage of scientists and other researchers--brace yourself, folks--do make false statements and false records in association with government grant money.

Such false claims can arise in any number of ways, including a good many of which Dr. Michael Mann is suspected. This is not a novel use of a federal or state False Claims Act--much to the contrary, false claims and fraud in association with government grants is very much a bread and butter false claims act case.

There is absolutely, positively, nothing controversial about issuing a CID to a researcher who is suspected of making false statements and/or false records in order to get government grants. This is a very, very common type of False Claims Act violation, and General Cuccinelli can--and should--be investigating the use of the Commonwealth's grant money.

General Cuccinelli, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the Commonwealth, issued this CID when he believed that a researcher was making (or had made) false claims and/or false records in association with state grant money.

But he is not the only with the power to take action--under the qui tam provisions of the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, any individual with first-hand, personal knowledge of false claims or fraud in relation to a state (or for that matter federal) grant also has the power to hire a private attorney (that is, one with experience in this area of law) and initiate a case.

The law sets forth a very specific procedure, and also creates potentially very lucrative rewards--the damages to the state are multiplied times three, and the individual (in these cases, the individual is usually called a "relator") can collect anywhere from 15% to 30% of the total damages to the state.

Full post as published by Virginia Qui Tam Law on May 04, 2010 (boomark / email).