WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration is starting a new $25 million program that will pay Americans who discover and report instances of fraud up to $30,000 per qualifying tip.
The federal government has established similar financial incentive programs before, including an IRS whistleblower program strengthened in 2006 to reward individuals for reporting tax violations and a Securities and Exchange Commission program authorized in 2010 to reward tips about securities law violations. But a defining feature of the new program is that it is designed to reward whistleblowers “at a much earlier stage of prosecution” and does not “require the matter to result in large fines or forfeiture.”
“These early-stage rewards aim to encourage prompt disclosure of information by giving whistleblowers more certainty about the amount and timing of a possible reward payment, while still leaving whistleblowers eligible for potentially larger rewards should their tips ultimately lead to large financial penalties or forfeiture,” the program’s webpage reads.
While a report doesn’t have to result in substantial financial penalties or forfeitures to reward the whistleblower, it does have to result in criminal charges. To qualify, reports may also concern crimes involving health care benefit programs or benefits administered by the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Veterans Affairs, War or the Small Business Administration.
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