Justice Department Announces New Corporate Whistleblower Pilot Program

Highlights

• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program last week as part of its "policy sprint."
• Under the program, DOJ may, in its sole discretion, award significant payments to individuals who report criminal wrongdoing in four key areas of interest to the government.
• DOJ structured the program to incentivize employee whistleblowers to report internally first, although it is unclear whether those incentives will suffice.

After announcing at the ABA White Collar Crime Conference last winter that it would engage in a months-long "policy sprint," the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) released its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (Whistleblower Program or Program) last week. The much-anticipated program is intended to fill gaps in the patchwork of federal whistleblower programs currently administered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Department of the