Last week, during an Oval Office event with President Trump and Vice President Vance, the Trump Administration announced the creation of a new $25 million whistleblower reward program for tips about fraud leading to successful criminal charges.

The program, which is alternatively known as the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP) and the Criminal Tip Rewards Pilot Program, will be administered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Under the Fraud Reward Program, a three-year pilot program, reward payments will be limited to tips relating to two categories: federal healthcare offenses and related crimes involving healthcare benefit programs, or fraud against patients or others in the healthcare industry; and fraud involving programs or benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (for instance the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Education (student aid fraud), Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

According to a press release, the program “places a particular emphasis on submissions involving hospice, home health care, daycare, and special services fraud.”

The program contains a novel feature among rewards programs, which is to pay rewards once criminal charges are made public, before the government actually collects any money. That is not the case with any of...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMixwFBVV95cUxQTzc2RGJvM1hGQ0lwQUlnXzZq...