The government takes fraud accusations very seriously. In some cases when defense contractors are accused of fraud, it is whistleblowers who brought the issue to light.
Exactly how much information the whistleblower provides to the government will differ from case to case. But it is worth noting that this type of fraud can be incredibly complex.
An example from a recent sentence
Two years ago, in 2022, a defense contractor was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. This happened because he was accused of defrauding the government, and his case underscores some of the potential complexities of such a charge.
For example, the scheme he created included the use of 15 different shell companies. Essentially, various companies are supposed to bid on DOD (Department of Defense) contracts. But this contractor used numerous aliases and committed identity theft while creating shell companies. This hid the fact that he was submitting multiple bids for the same jobs.
But it didn’t stop there. The man was accused of collusion, lying to federal officers and even money laundering. It turned out that he had been transferring money to his personal accounts in allotments of $10,000 apiece.
Whistleblowers have protections
Often, it is whistleblowers who notice that these types of things are taking place. Concerned employees may know about the shell companies, the identity theft or the illegal financial transfers. Whistleblowers may have real estate records relating to some of these companies or financial records showing where money has been moved around.
When whistleblowers are thinking of coming forward, it’s important for them to understand that they do have legal protections, and they need to know exactly what steps to take.
