Chris Ferguson discussed the latest developments in pandemic fraud enforcement trends for 2025 following the NYU Tax Controversy Forum earlier this summer.
Despite the federal workforce cuts at the IRS and other federal agencies, tax enforcement efforts have continued in 2025, and Chris predicts that the remainder of 2025 and 2026 will bring increased attention to pandemic fraud cases.
In the remainder of 2025, Chris said he expects the federal government to increase the use of the False Claims Act to pursue alleged fraud in pandemic-era economic recovery programs, such as Employee Retention Credit (ERC), Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and the like.
“In the first few years after the pandemic, you were seeing a lot of criminal prosecutions. I think the government was going after the low-hanging fruit and trying to bring cases that would have a deterrent effect. Now we’re seeing a transition to the False Claims Act as one of the tools of choice of the government in bringing these sorts of cases,” Chris said.
You can watch the video here.
About Chris
Chris Ferguson has over two decades of experience as a litigator, concentrating his practice on white-collar criminal defense as well as civil and criminal tax controversies and other regulatory enforcement matters. Chris also has extensive experience handling complex civil litigation and internal investigations.
