Happy Birthday, FCA

Eight score and three years ago, on March 2, 1863, President Lincoln signed the False Claims Act (“FCA”) during the Civil War as an attempt to combat rampant profiteering by contractors and suppliers who were defrauding the Union Army by selling substandard or even nonexistent products. These products included items such as crates labeled as gunpowder (but instead contained sawdust), sick horses and lame mules, defective firearms, and moth-eaten blankets. The FCA, sometimes referred to as “Lincoln’s Law,” has been amended several times since its enactment, most notably in 1986 to increase whistleblower rewards, strengthen whistleblower protections, and lower the government’s burden of proof.