Alert: Supreme Court grants certiorari on major FCA case

On July 1^st, 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States granted KBR’s (Kellog, Brown and Root Services, Inc.) petition to review a decision in the False Claims Act (FCA) case of U.S. ex rel. Benjamin Carter v. KBR on two highly important issues. The first issue concerns whether the statute of limitations to file FCA fraud claims should be significantly reduced. The second concerns whether the first-to-file provision of the FCA should bar whistleblowers from filing when they have made previous claims. Should KBR prevail on either of these issues, the case will be dismissed, Benjamin Carter will be left without recourse, and the government will make no collection regardless of how much money KBR cost taxpayers. Stephen M. Kohn, a partner at Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto, and the pro bono director of the National Whistleblowers Center, said, “Stripped to the bare essentials, KBR is attempting to create roadblocks for the U.S. to work with whistleblowers, undermining the government’s ability to detect fraud and recover billions of dollars from unscrupulous contractors. Given KBR’s role as the foremost recipient of government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is understandable why they would attempt to create loopholes to escape accountability for fraud.” Whistleblowers and their advocates are strongly urged to file Amicus briefs in support of the U.S. government and Carter’s case.