Overview
On April 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ,” or the “Department”) Civil Division announced the Fraud Oversight through Careful Use of Statistics (“FOCUS”) initiative to improve the quality of referrals from data miners and to strengthen DOJ’s working relationship with whistleblowers who use public data analytics to bring False Claims Act (“FCA”) qui tam complaints.[1] DOJ will offer meetings with the Civil Fraud Section for some data miners to explain their capabilities and methodologies and will prioritize engagement with sophisticated relators who demonstrate pre-filing diligence, analytical rigor, familiarity with program rules, and legally sufficient allegations.[2]
Through this initiative, DOJ intends to streamline intake and deepen coordination with analytics-focused relators, while signaling that lower-quality data miner submissions will receive less attention. Faced with resource constraints, DOJ is soliciting professionals to find creative and high-quality data analytics approaches to more efficiently focus the Department’s energies.
When it comes to data-driven cases, DOJ is prioritizing working with the most sophisticated data miners that are most likely to yield successful cases. This means not only focusing on cases that are more likely to uncover fraud, but also those that are likely to survive legal challenges from inception through summary judgment, increasing DOJ’s leverage to compel settlement. This initiative appears to indicate that rather than shying away from qui tam cases in light of the current Constitutional challenges to relator-initiated FCA cases, DOJ is seeking to rely more heavily on the private sector to assist in identifying and bringing meritorious cases.[3]
In its announcement, DOJ reports a rapid increase in qui tam filings driven by data miners analyzing publicly available government data, with data miners accounting for more than 45 percent of all qui tam complaints since Fiscal Year 2024.[4] The Department received a record 980 qui tam complaints in Fiscal Year 2024, nearly 1,300 in Fiscal Year 2025, and has already received over 780 in Fiscal Year 2026.[5] DOJ cites lower overall success rates for data miner qui tam cases compared to DOJ-initiated FCA matters, particularly in Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) pandemic assistance loan cases where DOJ has received many referrals. DOJ emphasizes the need for focused analytics that reliably correlate to fraud.[6]
Seeking More Sophisticated Referrals
For potential relators, DOJ has previewed what types of cases will attract its attention: high‑quality complaints that: anticipate enforcement concerns; offer reliable, predictive analyses; reflect a firm grasp of governing legal obligations; meet Rule 9(b)’s particularity requirements; and connect the data to scienter and falsity, often by incorporating program‑eligibility and regulatory frameworks. Although pre-filing outreach is not mandatory, the Department will give weight to relators who invest in pre‑filing diligence and can explain why their data correspond to fraud, including sophisticated applications of technology tethered to relevant rules.
What to Expect
Companies and nonprofits that depend on federal funding should expect intensified attention from unaffiliated data miners and seasoned relators and prepare for theories that more readily satisfy the particularity pleading requirement and survive early motions as DOJ filters out lower‑quality filings. Repeated, model‑driven complaints remain common, enabling rapid replication across multiple defendants once a theory gains momentum. Although the public disclosure bar can be implicated when the government declines to intervene, DOJ may be more inclined to intervene where matters are funneled through the FOCUS pathway. Proactive, relator‑centric assessments—using the same public datasets that outside analysts query—can help surface and address vulnerabilities before they appear in a complaint.
Practical Actions to Reduce Exposure
- Identify which public or subscription‑based datasets can be mined for issues with certifications and how anomalies might be misread as evidence of falsity or scienter.
- Develop contemporaneous (potentially privileged) explanations for legitimate outliers, consistent with DOJ’s emphasis on ruling out alternative, non‑fraud explanations and meeting particularity.
- Track enforcement priorities and public statements to anticipate areas most likely to draw analytics‑driven scrutiny.
- Monitor model-based pleadings and anticipate parallel filings premised on similar analytics. Indeed, this has been our own experience in one recent PPP loan settlement, where the relator made serial referrals to DOJ (including of our own client) on the basis of relatively simple public data analysis.
- Consider early engagement with DOJ to stress‑test relators’ methodologies.
Conclusion
As our own recent experience with data miner-initiated false claims allegations suggests, even relatively low single damages for a particular defendant can attract the government’s attention when replicated to scale by enterprising data miners. On the positive side, where liability is unavoidable, the ease with which data miners can leverage data may provide an argument for much lower multiples in settlement discussions. But to avoid appearing at the settlement table at all, the guidance set forth above can help putative defendants and targets proactively minimize the risk of exposure.
Saul Ewing’s White Collar and Government Enforcement Practice has extensive experience representing individuals and entities in False Claims Act defense. Our lawyers, including former federal prosecutors, are available to consult on these and related issues.
[1]Civil Division Announces FOCUS Initiative for Data Miners Filing Qui Tam Complaints (Apr. 30, 2026) https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/civil-division-announces-focus-initiative-data-miners-filing-qui-tam-complaints
[2] Id.
[3] See our discussion of the Constitutional issues likely to percolate to the U.S. Supreme Court. 11th Circ. May Bring Tectonic Shift To FCA Qui Tam Actions, Law 360 (Feb. 25, 2026), https://www.saul.com/insights/article/11th-circ-may-bring-tectonic-shift-fca-qui-tam-actions
[4] FOCUS Initiative for Data Miners Filing Qui Tam Complaints information Sheet, U.S. Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1438871/dl
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
