The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently introduced the Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program in an effort to incentivize individuals to report corporate criminal wrongdoing, focused primarily on financial institutions, corporations, and private insurers. While similar in structure to False Claims Act (FCA) (or qui tam) actions, this initiative does not apply to federal funding programs and seeks to fill a gap related to fraudulent corporate conduct not covered under other federal whistleblower programs.

The pilot program will run ​for three years.

By offering financial awards for original, truthful information that leads to asset forfeiture exceeding $1 million, the program encourages whistleblowers to come forward with tips for conduct that might otherwise go undetected. Simultaneously, the program aims to motivate private businesses to develop and implement compliance programs to prevent, identify, and remediate misconduct.

Awards are discretionary and based on specific criteria outlined in the program. To be eligible, the action must meet at least one of four criteria:

• Domestic schemes relate to bribery, kickbacks, or other inappropriate payments to public or elected officials.
• Financial institutions and/or employees misusing systems to take advantage of funds not covered under Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) policies.
• Foreign corruption, including money laundering, not related to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower program.
• Health care fraud not covered by the FCA (federal funds), including fraud committed against private insurers.

While the SEC, IRS, CFTC, and FinCEN all have successful whistleblower programs, the DOJ recognizes these programs don’t cover the full spectrum of industry conduct, and the pilot program is designed to more comprehensively address areas of potential fraud and abuse.

Graves Garrett Greim (GGG) attorneys have extensive experience nationwide in successfully handling FCA (or qui tam) and related whistleblower matters for both relators (whistleblowers) and defendants (those accused of wrongdoing). The firm’s practice area in this regard is combined with its national white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and compliance practices.

If you or someone within your organization believes you may have information helpful to the government and covered by DOJ’s new Corporate Whistleblower Awards program, our firm may be able to help. For questions or concerns in these areas, please contact Nathan Garrett at ngarrett@gravesgarrett.com or Lucinda Luetkemeyer at lluetkemeyer@gravesgarrett.com.