Employers may face higher risks from lawsuits by whistleblowers in the future.
As part of last year's omnibus spending bill, Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act, which increases rewards whistleblowers can receive. Whistleblowers now can personally collect 10 percent to 30 percent of any monetary sanction the government imposes over $1 million for money laundering.
"I anticipate a steady stream, if not a flood, of new claims by whistleblowers," said Gregory Keating, an attorney with Epstein Becker Green in Boston. "The amendments are clearly intended to enhance the monetary recovery [that] whistleblowers may be entitled to," he added. The whistleblower awards, "which are modeled on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's [SEC] wildly successful whistleblower program under the Dodd-Frank Act, can often run into the millions or tens of millions of dollars. This has galvanized the plaintiff-side whistleblower bar and caused a flood of law firms to focus their efforts on whistleblowing, which has in turn resulted in a marked uptick in tips to the government."
A Sept. 13, 2022, policy statement from the Biden administration supported the new law, stating "Whistleblower protections are critical to promoting public accountability and integrity. If prospective whistleblowers do not expect to be protected, and instead fear job loss and further targeted punishment, they are deterred from raising concerns about misconduct, fraud, or...
Published on April 28, 2026 In a determined effort to protect the reputation of one of Africa’s most iconic wildlife destinations, Kenya’s Tourism Regulatory Authority has strongly denied false cl...