False billing, also known as fraudulent billing or billing fraud, is a

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

ulent act of

invoicing An invoice, bill, tab, or bill of costs is a commercial document that includes an itemized list of goods or services furnished by a seller to a buyer relating to a sale transaction, that usually specifies the price and terms of sale, quantiti ...

or otherwise requesting funds from an individual or firm without showing

obligation An obligation is a course of action which someone is required to take, be it a legal obligation or a moral obligation. Obligations are constraints; they limit freedom. People who are under obligations may choose to freely act under obligations. ...

to pay. This could be fraudulent billing for part of the work done (over-billing with the intent to defraud), or that no work was done at all. Such notices are, ''for example'', sent to owners of

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

s, goods and/ or services not provided, or purporting to be legitimate renewal notices, although not originating from the owner's own registrar. Other examples are overbilling and fraudulently adding fake fees and taxes (see below).

Attorney bills

According to the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

rules governing lawyer's ethics, a false bill, invoice, or statement, this would be a misrepresentation that could result in sanctions. An attorney has a fiduciary duty under Rule 1.1 to their client of competent representation, and competence with billing is part of that. The lawyer has a specific duty under Rule 1.4 (b) to explain matters in order for them to make needed and informed choices about their lawyer's work. There are many more specific requirements under ABA Rule 1.5, Fees, for example, the bill must be "reasonable", which has been defined in great detail since 2014. If a false bill is sent to a third party to pay, it would violate Rule 4.1, "Truthfulness In Statements To Others ... Misrepresentation." False billing has become a serious problem, according to the ''

ABA Journal The ''ABA Journal'' (since 1984, formerly ''American Bar Association Journal'', 1915–1983, evolved from '' Annual Bulletin'', 1908–1914) is a monthly legal trade magazine and the flagship publication of the American Bar Association. It is n ...

'', whereby big law firms allegedly overbill clients.

Notable examples

* Akorn#History * Booz Allen Hamilton#Procurement fraud settlement * Drug rehabilitation#Criticism * '' Dubin v. United States'' *

Federal District Metro (Brazil) The Federal District Metro ( Portuguese: ''Metrô do Distrito Federal'', commonly called ''Metrô DF'') is the rapid transit system of the Federal District, in Brazil. It is operated by ''Companhia do Metropolitano do Distrito Federal'' and was o ...

* Fontainebleau Las Vegas#Financial issues:_2009 *

Lumen Technologies Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink, Inc.) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, which offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice and managed services through ...

* Operation LabScam * Oswego Community Hospital * Prem Reddy#Controversy and Prime Healthcare Services#Controversies *

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...

RKO General RKO General Inc. (previously General Teleradio Inc. and RKO Teleradio Pictures Inc.) was an American broadcasting company that, from 1952 through 1991, served as the main holding company for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber C ...

* Sumitomo Heavy Industries#History * Toronto Community Housing#2013 Fraudulent billing * Maryanne Trump Barry#Allegations of tax evasion

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:False Billing Finance fraud Legal ethics