Federal Employees as Relators OK'ed

In Little v. Shell Exploration & Production Co., the Fifth Circuit joined the Tenth and Eleventh Circuits in holding that federal employees, like private citizens, can bring whistleblower suits under the False Claims Act--even when those employees are auditors whose job is to investigate fraud. The Sixth and Ninth Circuits have also implicitly held that federal employees are not barred from acting as relators, while the First Circuit has held that at least some federal employees may not be qui tam plaintiffs.