On April 23, the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn, and Colapinto, LLP, in partnership with the National Whistleblower Center (NWC), will be hosting a free webinar on the topic of “Establishing an Effective DOJ Whistleblower Rewards Program to Fight Corruption Worldwide.” The U.S. Department of Justice is currently engaging in a “90-day policy sprint” to develop a whistleblower reward program.
The webinar will feature the Executive Director of NWC, Siri Nelson, and expert whistleblower attorney, Stephen M. Kohn. Nelson and Kohn will highlight the great potential of the DOJ Whistleblower Program to incentivize whistleblowers worldwide to expose corruption and wrongdoing, but will also discuss how the program will only succeed if it follows the best practices of other whistleblower programs and international whistleblowers’ experiences are taken into account.
The new DOJ program will concentrate on whistleblower rewards in asset forfeiture cases, aiming to close gaps in current whistleblower award laws. According to Nelson and Kohn, these changes could have a significant impact on the global fight against corruption by targeting the assets of bad actors through whistleblower incentives.
Whistleblower advocates warn, however, that the program will only be effective if it is established in a manner consistent with other highly successful whistleblower award programs. They are thus urging the DOJ to model its program after the Dodd-Frank Act’s programs at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In announcing the DOJ program, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco stated that these programs “have proven indispensable.”
The National Whistleblower Center has drafted a sign-on letter and is encouraging members of the international anti-corruption community to sign. This letter will demonstrate how important best-practice whistleblower programs are to the international anti-corruption community.
The webinar will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, April 23 at 10:30 am ET.