In recent years there has been a significant shift to investigation and settlement of financial fraud cases brought under the False Claims Act. Financial fraud is a term that can refer to fraud perpetrated by companies in the financial industry – such as investment or commercial banks, insurance companies and broker-dealers – or fraud in any sector of the economy that is financial in nature.
Much of the recent False Claims Act focus in the area of financial fraud has concerned government subsidies provided through the financial bailout of 2008 and the unprecedented Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and mortgage fraud committed against the Federal Housing Administration which insures a massive number of residential mortgages with taxpayer dollars. Fraud affecting government pension plans are also often actionable under the False Claims Act.
Hagens Berman has handled some of the nation’s largest financial fraud cases. As part of the global mortgage settlement in 2012, we represented both whistleblowers who sued Bank of America for its part in the mortgage scandal that led to the nation’s most recent financial crises. That global settlement of more than $20 billion included a $1 billion settlement with Bank of America triggered by our law firm’s whistleblower clients.
Unlike most whistleblower lawyers and law firms, Hagens Berman has vast experience in various forms of securities and accounting fraud, with a staff of attorneys experienced in litigating cases and successfully bringing cases through trial and appeals. Our whistleblower legal team is staffed with experts, including many attorneys with financial backgrounds and some with accounting and forensic accounting experience and expertise in whistleblower fraud, including many different types of financial fraud.
Most financial fraud schemes are complex in nature. Any financial whistleblower schemes that involve the improper use of government dollars, including government subsidies or insurance of any kind, may qualify as actionable under the False Claims Act. Hagens Berman has the resources and experience to analyze financial fraud matters comprehensively to determine what type of whistleblower case such information from a whistleblower might support.
Hagens Berman currently represents several whistleblowers with financial fraud cases currently under seal and under investigation by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
