2004 US Code
Title 41 - PUBLIC CONTRACTS
CHAPTER 2 - TERMINATION OF WAR CONTRACTS
Sec. 119 - Fraudulent claims, vouchers, statements, etc.; jurisdiction

Every person who makes or causes to be made, or presents or causes to be presented to any officer, agent, or employee of any Government agency any claim, bill, receipt, voucher, statement, account, certificate, affidavit, or deposition, knowing the same to be false, fraudulent, or fictitious or knowing the same to contain or to be based on any false, fraudulent, or fictitious statement or entry, or who shall cover up or conceal any material fact, or who shall use or engage in any other fraudulent trick, scheme, or device, for the purpose of securing or obtaining, or aiding to secure or obtain, for any person any benefit, payment, compensation, allowance, loan, advance, or emolument from the United States or any Government agency in connection with the termination, cancelation, settlement, payment, negotiation, renegotiation, performance, procurement, or award of a contract with the United States or with any other person, and every person who enters into an agreement, combination, or conspiracy so to do, (1) shall pay to the United States an amount equal to 25 per centum of any amount thereby sought to be wrongfully secured or obtained but not actually received, and (2) shall forfeit and refund any such benefit, payment, compensation, allowance, loan, advance, and emolument received as a result thereof and (3) shall in addition pay to the United States the sum of ,000 for each such act, and double the amount of any damage which the United States may have sustained by reason thereof, together with the costs of suit.

The several district courts of the United States, the several district courts of the Territories of the United States, within whose jurisdictional limits the person, or persons, doing or committing such act, or any one of them, resides or shall be found, shall, wheresoever such act may have been done or committed, have full power and jurisdiction to hear, try, and determine such suit, and such person or persons as are not inhabitants of or found within the district in which suit is brought may be brought in by order of the court to be served personally or by publication or in such other reasonable manner as the court may direct.

(July 1, 1944, ch. 358, §19(a), (c)–(e), 58 Stat. 667; June 25, 1948, ch. 645, §21, 62 Stat. 862.)

As originally enacted, the second undesignated paragraph of this section contained the words, “, the District of Columbia” after “The several district courts of the United States”. The words “District of Columbia” have been deleted entirely as superfluous in view of section 132(a) of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure, which states that “There shall be in each judicial district a district court which shall be a court of record known as the United States District Court for the district”, and section 88 of Title 28 which states that “the District of Columbia constitutes one judicial district”.

Section was comprised of subsecs. (a) and (c) to (e) of section 19 of act July 1, 1944. Subsec. (b) of section 19 was classified to section 590a of Title 18, Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure, prior to the general revision and enactment of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, by act June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 683. Subsecs. (a), (d), and (e) of section 19 were repealed by act June 25, 1948, leaving only subsec. (c) of section 19, which comprises this section. Subject matter of former subsecs. (a), (d), and (e) of section 19 is covered by sections 201, 287, 443, and 1001 of Title 18.

1948—Act June 25, 1948, repealed first, second, fifth, and sixth undesignated pars. See Codification note above.

Amendment by act June 25, 1948, effective Sept. 1, 1948, see section 20 of that act.