The False Claims Act originated during the civil war, in a period when the government was subjected to massive fraud from contractors providing poor quality or unusable military supplies. The law imposes liability on people or parties who defraud the federal government, and also contains a qui tam provision allowing private citizens to join with the government as whistleblowers by calling attention to fraudulent behavior. Known as “relators,” these individuals can recover up to 30 percent of the total amount recovered by the government in qui tam actions.