On August 1, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued final guidance on its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (Program), offering financial incentives to qualifying individuals who report certain criminal conduct to the DOJ. This new guidance follows a March 7, 2024, announcement of an inchoate program by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a speech that emphasized the expansion of credit for voluntary self-disclosure (VSD) programs. (We wrote about this prior announcement here.)

The DOJ intends for the Program to fill gaps in existing whistleblower programs by compensating individuals who do not qualify for another federal voluntary self-disclosure program or qui tam mechanism. Under the Program, “[w]histleblowers may be eligible for an award…when they provide original, truthful information about criminal misconduct relating to one or more designated program areas that leads to a forfeiture exceeding $1,000,000 in net proceeds.” Notwithstanding this broad description of the Program, an individual seeking an award must meet very specific requirements. The Program defines who an eligible individual is, what original information is, what covered criminal conduct includes, what information leads to a forfeiture, what net proceeds are, and how a whistleblower must claim eligibility for an award. The DOJ makes abundantly clear in all Program materials that any award is at its sole discretion.

Regardless of how restrictive the qualifying criteria may be, DAG...

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