The Eastern Dist. U.S. Attorney’s office says it helped collect over $182 million dollars stemming from civil and criminal actions in FY 2014.
That historically large sum represents more than 20 times the Office’s annual $10 million dollar budget.
Kerry B. Harvey, U-S Attorney for the Eastern District, says that $76 million of that total was directly related to cases of companies and individuals submitting false claims for government reimbursement.
"The bulk of the money that we collect comes from our efforts to pursue False Claims Act cases. Those are cases in which the government alleges that it has been defrauded by people who supply goods or services to the government or who bill the government for healthcare services covered by federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid," Harvey told WUKY.
Harvey says the windfall is a testament to the kind of interagency teamwork that is necessary in order to bring offenders to justice.