The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division has seen the first-ever whistleblower payment under a newly developed rewards programme, which heralds a major change in the way criminal antitrust offences should be understood as a way of exposing and prosecuting them.
The ~737,000 ($1 million) milestone payout reflects a larger initiative to encourage insiders to disclose covert anticompetitive behaviour damaging consumers and markets.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) worked with the DOJ Antitrust Division to award the first whistleblower under the Whistleblower Rewards Programme on 29 January 2026.
This programme, which opens in July 2025, enables individuals to have monetary compensation to offer their original and valid information that results in a successful action of enforcement, whether in terms of criminal fines or at least 1 million dollars in entry.
Whistleblowers who achieve the results of criminal enforcement due to their voluntary report under the programme might receive a reward of up to 30 per cent of the monetary recovery. Employees are also guarded by the federal law against retaliation in case of reporting criminal antitrust violations by the employer.
According to Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater, the programme was intended to help crack the secrecy that usually...
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