Credit: freshidea/Adobe Stock Workers Have New Incentives to Snitch to Feds, Skipping Internal Ethics Hotlines
"Could there be certain employees who choose not to report internally because they have a prospect of a whistleblower award at DOJ--yes," said Steve Fagell, a Covington & Burling partner.
July 01, 2024 at 07:20 AM
7 minute read
White Collar Crime
What You Need to Know
- New DOJ programs are further complicating companies' already-agonizing decision on whether to self-report wrongdoing.
- The agency wants employers to fear that if they stay silent, one of their employees will blow the whistle, or maybe already has.
- Companies count on their workers to help ferret out wrongdoing, but their hotlines don't offer the potential for multimillion-dollar rewards that government programs do.
A new Department of Justice program that offers cash rewards to whistleblowers will give employees an additional incentive to take allegations of misconduct straight to the feds, bypassing internal ethics hotlines companies count on to ferret out suspicious behavior before it becomes a crisis.
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