According to the law, filing the qui tam lawsuit is done under seal in a U.S. District Court that has jurisdiction.  That means the complaint is sealed by the court, out of public view, and is not served on the defendant.  Thus, the defendant does not know a qui tam lawsuit has been filed and you were the one that is named as the plaintiff.  The government then, technically, under the law, has 60 days to investigate your charges and decide whether or not to intervene in the case.  However, the 60 days specified by the law is unrealistic for a qui tam lawsuit (the government would have trouble getting a cup of coffee in that time frame), so they will routinely ask the court and the relator for an extension of the seal that most likely will be repeated for several years. One of the ideas of the seal is to allow the government to investigate the allegations without the defendant’s knowledge of the complaint against it.

Most of the time, a defendant company will soon find out there is a government investigation going on targeting the company. However, because of the seal, government investigators and attorneys do not reveal the investigation is a qui tam lawsuit or the source of the allegations.