The US government is willing to pay whistelblowers up to $5m for help spotting ill-gotten yachts and other playthings belonging to Russia oligarchs linked to the Kremlin, part of the Biden administration’s financial onslaught against Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.
The rewards programme, which was approved by Congress last year, was formally unveiled on Wednesday, and will offer financial compensation to those who help the Treasury Department find assets “linked to corruption involving the government of the Russian Federation.”
There is, of course, a bit of fine print, and not just any tip will earn someone millions from the US government.
The assets must be in the US, held by a US person, or in the possession of a US institution, and information supplied to the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Program must lead to the restraint, seizure, of forfeiture of some kind of loot.
Under the programme, ill-gotten assets can include physical ones like jets or yachts, as well as financial assets.
Final decisions on payment will be decided on a case-by-case basis and approved by Treasury secretary Janet Yellen.
This could be a problem, Ross Delston, an independent attorney and expert on anti-money laundering, told VICE, which reported on the programme. If incentives for the tip programme aren’t clear and compelling, those with information might not be willing to challenge these extraordinarily rich and powerful businessmen.
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