In a major breakthrough, the UK think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) released a report calling for a whistleblower award program in the UK. While the United States has implemented a number of highly successful whistleblower award programs which have brought in billions of dollars in sanctions, the United Kingdom has long been resistant towards implementing its own award program.
The RUSI report examines the successes of U.S. whistleblower award programs and states that the United Kingdom should end its “long-held antipathy” towards paying whistleblowers because such a program could play a “pivotal role” in reducing white-collar offences.
“The RUSI report is a historic breakthrough for whistleblower protection and anti-corruption,” says leading whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn of the Washington D.C. firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto. “It recognizes the incredible value of laws such as Dodd-Frank and the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act.”
The RUSI report, was authored by RUSI Research Fellow Eliza Lockhart. “Having an insider who can provide the emails and can provide the evidence just changes the game,” Lockhart told the Financial Times. “But it means that you need to get over the idea that a whistleblower is going to be this kind of moralistic hero that we put on a pedestal.
The RUSI report notes that whistleblowers from the UK have been flocking to U.S. whistleblower award programs due to the anonymous reporting channels, anti-retaliation protections, and monetary awards. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) its hugely successful whistleblower program receives more tips from the UK than any other foreign country.
The RUSI report backs up calls for whistleblower awards in the UK by Nick Ephgrace, Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) “I think we should pay whistleblowers,” Ephgrave said in February.
Ephgrave spoke alongside Lockhart at the launch event and noted that the UK could help reverse the trend of whistleblowers going to the United States by implementing awards. According to the Telegraph, Ephgrave is currently urging government ministers in the UK to set up a whistleblower award program modeled on the United States’. “We know that there are very effective programs elsewhere, the exemplar is in the United States,” he said.
Further Reading:
Whistleblowers’ Rewards in the Fight Against Economic Crime
As FCA Fails to Offer Awards, Whistleblowers from UK Flock to SEC
New Paper Refutes Arguments Against Implementation of Whistleblower Awards in the U.K.
