Nick Ephgrave, the Director of the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is continuing to call for the implementation of a whistleblower award program in the UK. In recent days, Ephgrave has made a number of comments about the need for financial incentives for whistleblowers and the impact it would have on efforts to combat white collar crime.
Ephgrave first called for the implementation of whistleblower awards in February, when in his first public speech after taking over the SFO, he stated “I think we should pay whistleblowers” after noting that the whistleblower award laws in the U.S. have been incredibly effective. He specifically pointed to the U.S. Department of Justice which reports that 86% of civil settlements under the False Claims Act result from whistleblower disclosures thanks to the law’s whistleblower award provisions.
While U.S. whistleblower award programs have revolutionized the detection, enforcement, and deterrence of white collar crime, the UK has historically been resistant to the idea of whistleblower awards. As a whole, the UK’s current whistleblower system under the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) has been widely criticized by advocates.
Released on December 10, a landmark report by the prestigious UK think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) adds extensive research and strong empirical evidence towards the calls for whistleblower awards in the UK. According to the report, the UK should end its “long-held antipathy” towards...
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