Today, Congressman Elijah Cummings and Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced the Whistleblower Augmented Reward and Nonretaliation Act (WARN Act). The WARN Act provides vital reforms enabling whistleblowers to attain rewards and be protected for reporting violations of banking laws under the Financial Institutions Anti-Fraud Enforcement Act and the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
Effective whistleblower programs have been proven to be tremendously successful, and would be an invaluable tool in the effort to hold major actors in the financial sector accountable.
Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center, Stephen Kohn, endorsed the bill with the following statement:
“The big banks have escaped prosecution in large part because there are few whistleblower protections in the financial industry. The need for this law is well documented. Attorney General Eric Holder publicly stated that the Justice Department needed these reforms in order to get information about financial crimes.
We cannot ignore the devastation caused by fraud in the big banks. Banking misconduct triggered millions of housing foreclosures, and pushed our economy to the brink of a second great depression, and everyday Americans lost many billions if not trillions of hard-earned dollars. We need whistleblowers to provide the crucial information that will finally bring justice to the banks.
This bill will be a massive game-changer in the effort to hold big banks accountable for fraud.”
The banks and the Wall Street lobbyists are already working to kill this bill. Wall Street hates whistleblowers with a passion. We need a massive showing of public support to ensure this historic bill is passed.
Take Action – Tell your representatives to support the WARN Act.