In a press release issued on January 15, 2025, the US Department of Justice released its annual statistics and announced that recoveries from False Claims Act settlements and judgments in fiscal year 2024 topped $2.9 billion—a 30% increase over the past two years.
While the filing of affirmative False Claims Act (FCA) cases by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) was slightly down over the previous year, 2024 saw the largest ever number of actions filed by relators under the qui tam provisions—close to 1,000—with the majority of those in the non-healthcare and non-defense spaces. While most of the 2024 qui tam filings remain under seal pending government investigation and intervention decisions, the pipeline of new filings signals that qui tam provisions remain a driver of robust civil fraud enforcement and litigation activity.
Fiscal year 2024 FCA recoveries bring the total since 1986 to more than $78 billion. With DOJ touting two substantial settlements totaling $878 million in the first month of FY 2025, the table is being set for another significant recovery announcement next year as well.
Matters alleging healthcare-related fraud remained the primary driver for overall FCA recoveries, but the total recoveries in this area were essentially flat in 2024 at approximately $1.68 billion (versus $1.86 billion in FY 2023). DOJ’s press release reaffirms its commitment to enforcement in this space, highlighting recoveries in areas that have been a focus in prior years: the marketing and dispensing of opioids, unnecessary medical services and substandard care, Medicare Advantage/Part C, and unlawful kickbacks.
Department of Defense (DOD)-related procurement fraud matters saw overall recoveries down significantly from last year’s near-record numbers in this area. However, the $93 million is on par with numbers seen between 2020 and 2022, and the overall number of affirmative and qui tam matters brought in this area remains steady. And the downturn may just be a function of the timing of the finalization of one DOD settlement—for $428 million—just after the fiscal year ended.
Within both this category and the non-DOD categories, DOJ also highlighted cases tied to its cybersecurity Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative announced in 2021, reflecting a continued focus on promoting compliance with these requirements both under the Federal Acquisition Regulation and government contracts and grants across all sectors.
One surprising takeaway from this year’s statistics is the growth in overall non-healthcare and non-DOD recoveries, with a 211% year-over-year increase amounting to $1.15 billion. While this is not the highest-ever recovery in this “other” category, it is the highest since 2016, when housing and mortgage fraud recoveries were significant drivers.
This past year, the recoveries were driven in significant part by matters alleging pandemic-related fraud—for example, under the Paycheck Protection Program. Indeed, the recoveries in pandemic-related matters increased with a 418% year-over-year jump ($250 million compared to $48.3 million) despite a similar number of cases resolved (250 compared to 270). That these cases are just now beginning to lead to recoveries at significant numbers—more than four years after the height of the pandemic—has been anticipated, with DOJ and relators turning their sights to larger businesses that received higher-value pandemic-related loans. We expect recoveries in this pandemic-funding related category to remain high in the near-term.
Similarly, overall recoveries in this “other” category can be expected to stay strong and potentially grow given the large number of additional qui tam filings in this area in FY 2024. This past year saw 250 more qui tam actions filed than in 2023, and over three times as many as in 2020 and 2021.
The 2024 filing and recovery statistics demonstrate that FCA enforcement remains robust across all industry sectors, and 2025 likely will bring more of the same. Indeed, the 979 new qui tam filings, which dwarf the prior record of 757 filings set in 2013, forecast more investigations and the potential for increases in overall recoveries.
DOJ’s expression of gratitude to whistleblowers in its press release can perhaps be seen as a nod to its vigorous defense of the qui tam provisions in the face of one district court holding these provisions unconstitutional this past year in response to Appointments Clause questions raised in a US Supreme Court dissent. These filings have been and remain a driver of DOJ’s primary enforcement tool.
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