On August 1 2024, the Department of Justice's Criminal Division (DOJ) launched its highly anticipated whistleblower awards program. As we previously covered, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco unveiled the anticipated program in March at the ABA's White Collar Crime Conference, after which DOJ commenced a "policy sprint" to develop the program's bounds. The details have now arrived: a three-year pilot program, called the "Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program" (Pilot Program), that will compensate whistleblowers who provide original information to DOJ about certain types of corporate misconduct if that information leads to a successful forfeiture. According to DOJ, the Pilot Program fills gaps in existing whistleblower programs, including those maintained by other federal agencies, by addressing certain areas of corporate misconduct those programs do not cover. The Pilot Program goes into effect immediately.
The Pilot Program covers the following specific areas of corporate crime:
- Violations by financial institutions, their insiders, or agents, including schemes involving money laundering, anti-money laundering compliance violations, registration of money transmitting businesses, and fraud statutes, and fraud against or non-compliance with financial institution regulators
- Violations related to foreign corruption and bribery by, through, or related to companies, including violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, violations of the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, and violations of the money laundering statutes
- Violations committed by or through companies related to the payment of bribes or kickbacks to domestic public officials, including but not limited to federal, state, territorial, or local elected or appointed officials and officers or employees of any government department or agency
- Violations related to (1) federal health care offenses and related crimes involving private or other non-public health care benefit programs, where the overwhelming majority of claims are submitted to private or other non-public health care benefit programs, (2) fraud against patients, investors, and other non-governmental entities in the health care industry, where the overwhelming majority of the actual or intended loss was to patients, investors, and other non-governmental entities, and (3) any other federal violations involving conduct related to health care not covered by the False Claims Act
An individual may be eligible for an award under DOJ's Pilot Program if, alone or jointly with others, the individual gives DOJ original information, in writing, that leads to criminal or civil forfeiture exceeding $1,000,000 in connection with a successful prosecution, corporate criminal resolution, or civil forfeiture action within the four areas outlined above. As with any whistleblower program, award eligibility under the Pilot Program depends on several factors, as outlined in DOJ's Pilot Program guidance.
Alongside its Pilot Program launch, DOJ also announced an amendment to its Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (VSD Policy). Under the amendment, where a company receives an internal report of misconduct from a whistleblower and reports that misconduct to DOJ within 120 days, the company will be eligible for a presumption of a declination. The VSD Policy amendment paired with the Pilot Program puts significant pressure on corporations to promptly investigate and disclose misconduct reported internally by whistleblowers.
Yesterday's announcement of the Pilot Program and the VSD Policy amendment puts an exclamation point on the message DOJ has been repeating to companies and their employees recently: if you see something, say something.
Learn more about DOJ's Pilot Program and the VSD Policy amendment by reading our recent Advisory.
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