False Claims Act/Qui Tam Litigation

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During the first eight months of 2025, our team has paid close attention to the Trump administration’s strategy for civil and criminal enforcement concerning fraud related to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. In April, Jonathan Porter and Robert Peabody discussed the Department of Justice’s use of the False Claims Act (FCA)—a civil enforcement tool—to enforce potentially criminal COVID-related fraud. In May, Rebecca Furdek, Kyle Gilster, and Emily Loftis explained the framework for ongoing PPP loan audits and investigations, followed in August by a mid-year update regarding enforcement trends and notable cases.

These and other thought leadership pieces address the origination of the PPP loan landscape during COVID-19; the rise of audits, investigations, and enforcement actions through which these and similar loans have been scrutinized; and the basic elements of the civil and criminal enforcement frameworks used to prosecute fraudulent conduct in connection with these loans.

This post explores the federal government’s ongoing efforts to combat PPP-related fraud, focusing on emerging civil enforcement trends and theories of liability under the False Claims Act.

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On August 29, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a new Trade Fraud Task Force, which will leverage resources from DOJ’s Civil and Criminal Divisions as well as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enforce tariff and duties evasion, smuggling, and other import violations. The initiative furthers the Trump Administration’s “America First Trade Policy” announced on Inauguration Day and in Executive Order 14243, which promotes information-sharing between agencies to support the administration’s overall goals of combating waste, fraud, and abuse.

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We’ve just put the wraps on Episode 31 of the False Claims Act Insights podcast where I had a great conversation with longtime healthcare law veterans Brett McNeal and David Traskey covering advisory opinions from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. We discuss how the highly qualified and sometimes equivocal…