The Justice Department is launching a new pilot program to reward whistleblowers who tell prosecutors about corporate crime, adding a new incentive to attract more tipsters to aid the government.Tipsters will be paid some of money that defendants forfeit when they settle criminal charges or are sentenced after a guilty plea or conviction. The program will launch later this year.
Whistleblowers who file lawsuits and tell the Justice Department about schemes to defraud federal government programs—such as Medicare and Medicaid—are also eligible for rewards under the False Claims Act. The department can intervene and join those civil lawsuits when it believes the claims are credible.The Justice Department’s program would seek to fill gaps in the federal whistleblower framework. It could be used, Monaco said, to pay people who tell the government about domestic or overseas business corruption and aren’t eligible to be rewarded under the SEC’s system. It could target misconduct at private companies, which aren’t overseen by the SEC.
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer whose firm represents whistleblowers in healthcare fraud under the False Claims Act (FCA) also whistleblower claims brought under the SEC whistleblower program for violations of securities regulations including insider trading cases. He also handles cases involving evasion of US sanctions against China, Iran and Russia and other sanctioned entities and he can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217
