In Illinois and elsewhere, state and local governments are hemorrhaging money. Both the City of Chicago and Cook County are running deficits in the hundreds of millions and the State of Illinois is more than $10 billion under water. These deficits are threatening both public services and the pensions which are owed to the employees who make government work.
Much of this red ink could be washed away if the government were effective at stopping fraud and abuse. Conservative estimates demonstrate that billions of tax payer dollars are lost to fraud each year in this country. If you are reading this website then you are a person who is in position to help.
Government employees are the best defense that the taxpayers have against fraud. Unfortunately, many conscientious public employees find themselves without sufficient political "cache" stop fraud when they encounter it, or, worse yet, they try to do something about it only to have their superiors or co-workers retaliate.
The state and local whistleblower laws in Illinois give you the power to do good by stopping the fraud, all while earning substantial financial compensation for yourself. It is called "doing well by doing good."
Loevy & Loevy is the right firm to help. Government employees face special hurdles when acting as whistleblowers. Our attorneys are not only familiar with these challenges, we have a record of success on behalf of government whistleblowers, including at trial.
If you know about fraud affecting state or local governments you may be able to sue as a qui tam whistleblower and receive 15% to 30% of the government's recovery as a reward. Examples of fraud may include:
- Knowingly delivering faulty goods and services
- False billing and overbilling
- Failing to offer the government the best available price for goods and services
- Misrepresentations in privatization deals
- Bid-rigging
- Using phony disadvantaged business contractors (DBEs)
- Misbilling for employee benefits.
These are just examples. Creative fraudsters find all sorts of ways to cheat the government. It is important to speak to an attorney is you have any reason to believe that a company is defrauding the government.
Also, it is important that you act quickly. Under the law, only the first person to file suit about the fraud will be entitled to the bounty. The law requires that a court dismiss all other cases about the fraud other than the first-filed case.
We at Loevy & Loevy understand this issue better than most firms. Moving fast is part of our ethic. In fact, we have literally filed the same day in order to ensure that the whistleblower would not lose his right to the bounty.
You can reach us at (312) 243-5900 or email us at Whistleblower@loevy.com. All consultations are free, covered by the attorney-client privilege, and treated with the utmost confidentiality. And we never charge our whistleblower clients out of pocket for fees or expenses, meaning we only get paid if you do.
We look forward to hearing from you.
