Sunday, July 13, 2008

The July 2 front-page article "A Backlog of Cases Alleging Fraud" incorrectly stated that 900 cases are languishing in a "backlog." That number represents the active cases under investigation by the Justice Department.

Investigations of new cases under the False Claims Act are begun immediately and do not wait for earlier cases to be completed. The number of pending cases has remained essentially constant since at least fiscal 2003, with the Justice Department resolving about 350 cases annually, roughly equal to the number of new False Claims Act cases filed annually.

We did not state, as the story suggested, that we are overloaded and understaffed and that the commercial litigation branch of the Justice Department's Civil Division works on only 100 investigations per year. In the past two fiscal years, our attorneys have devoted significant time to between 400 and 450 cases annually.

The article's implication that the department is not acting diligently in handling fraud cases is belied by the $20 billion in recoveries since the False Claims Act was amended in 1986, nearly $7 billion of which has been recovered since fiscal 2005. Of the $20 billion, $12 billion has been collected in whistle-blower cases that have been aggressively pursued by Justice Department attorneys with the assistance of whistle-blowers and their attorneys, and more than $2 billion in rewards have been paid to those who brought cases under the False Claims Act.

GREGORY G. KATSAS

Assistant Attorney General

Civil Division

U.S. Department of Justice

Washington