August 1, 2024

Department of Justice Implements Whistleblower Program Based on Expert Recommendations

WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Money Laundering and Asset Recovering Section (MLARS) officially launched its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program, which focuses on providing a new avenue for whistleblowers to report white collar and corporate crimes. The program’s Acting Director invited Government Accountability Project, as well as other key stakeholders, to the program announcement this morning.

Crucially, the published guidance for this program now includes confidentiality, anonymity, and anti-gag provisions to protect the whistleblower, as well as explicitly consider retaliation experienced by the whistleblower in the Justice Department’s actions. This directly reflects the top recommendations provided by Government Accountability Project experts to the Justice Department’s MLARS leadership and is a critical improvement to the structure of the new whistleblower program that was initially announced by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in March.

“This is a welcome sign from the Justice Department as they launch this new pilot program,” said Deputy Director of Legislation, Maya Efrati. “These kinds of new programs are a sign that the importance of whistleblowers is well-established; at the same time, any new system must include anti-retaliation provisions and other best practices to be successful and to protect whistleblowers....

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiuwFBVV95cUxOSXAwUk93bUhsUWljOXBwVTdI...