Investigations, Enforcement, & Compliance Alerts

The Supreme Court of the United States’ recent decisions in Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. (2024) and Corner Post v. Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 603 U.S. __ (2024), may provide federal contractors with new arguments and opportunities to challenge agency regulations in litigation and bid protests.

On Feb. 22, 2024, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released its annual False Claims Act (FCA) recovery statistics and announced that it obtained more than $2.68 billion in settlements and judgments in fiscal year (FY) 2023 from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government, a 21% increase over the prior year's recoveries. As such, FY 2023 was another strong year for FCA enforcement and marked the fifteenth straight year where recoveries exceeded $2 billion. This past fiscal year also saw records set in several areas, including the highest number of settlements and judgments in DOJ history and a record number of civil investigative demands (CIDs) issued in connection with investigating FCA claims, revealing highly robust FCA investigative activity in 2023, which could signal even greater FCA judgments and recoveries in future years.

The Department of Justice is intensifying its corporate enforcement efforts with a new whistleblower program. DOJ has made it clear that corporations and individuals with knowledge of corporate misconduct should “come see us before we come see you.”