government fraud

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Government fraud is a type of white-collar crime which includes any fraud or attempted fraud in which the United States Government is the victim. Typically, government fraud occurs in connection with federal government contracting or federally funded entitlement programs. The prohibition against government fraud is codified at 18 U.S. Code ยง 1031.

As it relates to federal government contracting, government fraud often involves bribery in contracts or procurement, collusion among contractors, false or double billing, false certification of the quality of parts or of test results, and substitution of bogus or otherwise inferior parts.

Both members of the public and employees of the U.S. Government can commit government fraud. A party who believes that government fraud occurred can file a report at gao.gov.

[Last updated in January of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]