Research Fraud

Federal and State governments spend billions of dollars each year to fund research on a variety of topics and programs. Unfortunately, recipients of these grants may not use the money as intended.  Research grant fraud may include misrepresenting facts in the application to secure the grant; misrepresenting research results and data; over-charging for costs and other expenses, including wages and time reported; using grant money for work outside the grant terms; and misrepresenting conflicts of interest by the investigators.

These knowingly false statements to secure a government grant are fraudulent and may form the basis of a False Claims Act lawsuit.

Types of Research Fraud

Grant Fraud

Various agencies within the federal government -including the Department of Defense; Department of Agriculture; Department of Energy; Department of Labor; Department of Education; National Institutes of Health; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Department of Energy; and National Science Foundation (“NSF”) – fund  research into everything from cancer to climate change.

The federal government provides this funding through grants awarded to individual scientists or researchers but also to academic institutions and private companies.  Whistleblowers have played an important role in exposing research grant fraud that is hard to detect without the information the whistleblower brings to the government. Fraudulent conduct may include:

• Falsifying a grant application in order to secure a grant
• Falsifying research data and results
• Over-charging time, costs and other expenses associated with the grant
• Falsifying purchase orders for equipment and materials
• Using grant money for other unrelated research
• Using grant money for personal expenses
• Improper conflicts of interest by the principal investigators
• Falsifying progress reports and other documentation
• Failing to comply with applicable government safety and other regulations