A qui tam lawsuit allows an individual, called the relator or whistleblower, to bring a civil lawsuit under the Federal False Claims Act or the New York State False Claims Act on behalf of the government.  The purpose is to reward people for identifying crimes [...]

Any person or organization with knowledge of a fraud being perpetrated against the government can be a whistleblower. Often, a whistleblower comes from the company that is committing the fraud, but this is not a requirement. The company cannot retaliate against the whistleblower. A lawyer [...]

The penalties in a qui tam case can be extraordinary.  The Federal False Claims Act allows for treble damages, or three (3) times what the government paid for each false claim and a per claim penalty of a minimum of $11,462 and a maximum of [...]

The statute of limitations for a qui tam action is the longer of: 6 years from when the fraud is committed; or 3 years after the United States/New York knows or should know about the material facts, but not more than 10 years after the [...]

Yes. New York State has its own False Claim Act under the State Finance Law. The New York False Claim Act is very similar to the Federal False Claims Act.