Whistleblowers By Industry & Sector
Contractors
The government spends more than 10 percent of the federal budget to purchase goods and services from private industry.
Defense Contractors
Fraud by defense contractors, scamming the Union Army, is the reason the federal False Claims Act was originally enacted in 1863.
Pharma
The United States government is the world’s largest purchaser of prescription drugs, buying billions of dollars of drugs a year under Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, and other government healthcare programs.
Health Care Providers
The federal government financed 26 percent of total health spending in the United States in 2012, spending more than 900 billion dollars.
Medical Device Manufacturers
Medical device manufacturers face temptations to try to influence physicians’ treatment decisions in order to benefit their bottom lines.
Grant Recipients & Researchers
The government spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year funding research and development and demonstration projects.
Wall Street
AIG. Washington Mutual. Merrill Lynch. Lehman Brothers. In the wake of these and other recent shareholder debacles and corporate governance failures, the need for whistleblowers in the financial services sector has perhaps never been clearer.
Public Works
Highways. Bridges. Constructing and renovating government buildings. Government spends billions every year on these and other public works projects. Too many of these dollars are lost to fraud.
GSA
The United States General Services Administration (GSA) assists with procurement work for all other federal agencies. GSA oversees 66 billion dollars of procurement annually and manages about 500 billion dollars of federal property, including 8,300 owned and leased buildings for federal offices and operations and a motor pool fleet of 210,000 vehicles.
Oil & Gas
Oil and gas companies frequently do not own the land they drill on, instead leasing land or mineral rights from the landowner, on terms that require royalty payments.
Student Loans
The federal government spends billions of dollars annually in grants, loans, and financial aid to educational institutions and students across the country.
Disaster Relief
Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Sandy. Droughts and Heat Waves. Fires. Earthquakes. Tornadoes. The federal government spends roughly $45 billion a year on disaster relief — to help people and businesses that have suffered sudden and horrible harm and loss from natural disasters.
Private Prison Companies
The trend toward privatization of jails and prisons has progressed to the point that roughly ten percent of all state and federal prisoners, pretrial detainees and immigrants in detention are housed in privately-operated facilities.
USAID
USAID—the U.S Agency for International Development—is the federal agency primarily responsible distributing tax dollars to civilian foreign aid projects.
Customs
Importers, exporters, and customs brokers risk False Claims Act liability when they knowingly cheat U.S. Customs by underpaying or avoiding paying customs or tariffs.
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) operates a Whistleblower Program to receive tips about violations of the federal securities laws.
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) operates a Whistleblower Program to receive tips about fraud, manipulation, and abusive practices in markets within its jurisdiction—including futures markets, swap markets, and markets for derivatives and foreign currencies.
Environmental
The False Claims Act can be a tool for enforcing environmental laws. Several False Claims Act cases have been brought charging companies with falsely certifying compliance with environmental laws or violating contracts with the government requiring environmental remediation and clean up.
Unclaimed Property
Most states have laws that require holders of “unclaimed” or “abandoned” property to turn over that property to the state after some period of time (the “dormancy” period), generally, after three to five years.