The Department of Justice (DOJ) has introduced the Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program

BySvetlana Minevich
Metal whistle and wooden judge gavel on dark background

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has introduced a new Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program, which aims to address gaps in existing federal whistleblower programs. This three-year initiative covers areas not included in the False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam program and other programs set by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The pilot program focuses on four key subject areas:

  1. Violations by financial institutions and abuse of the financial system not covered by existing programs.
  2. Foreign corruption schemes not addressed by the SEC’s whistleblower program.
  3. Domestic corruption schemes involving the payment of bribes and kickbacks.
  4. Federal health care offenses not covered by the FCA.

Whistleblowers may be eligible for monetary rewards if their original information results in criminal or civil forfeiture exceeding $1 million. They could receive up to 30% of the first $100 million in net proceeds forfeited and up to 5% of any net proceeds forfeited between $100 million and $500 million. However, whistleblowers who participated in the reported criminal activity are not eligible for awards.

The pilot program encourages internal reporting and states that employees who report misconduct internally can still seek a whistleblower award, provided they submit the report to the DOJ within 120 days of their initial internal report. Internal reporting may also increase the employee’s award payments.

Furthermore, the DOJ’s self-disclosure policy, the Criminal Division Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy, is now aligned with this new pilot program. Companies that self-report conduct to the DOJ can qualify for a presumption of a declination even if an internal report was made by a whistleblower, as long as the company self-reports within 120 days of the whistleblower’s internal report, during the three-year pilot program.

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