LONDON – The British government is considering creating a reward system, similar to ones in the United States, to encourage whistle-blowers to come forward to root out fraud and other white-collar crime.
The U.K. Home Office said this week that it, along with other government agencies, would examine the “qui tam” provisions in the United States, which allow whistle-blowers to receive a share of any financial penalties levied when they work with prosecutors and regulators to uncover fraud.
Britain’s government will “consider the case for incentivizing whistle-blowing, including the provision of financial incentives, to support whistle-blowing in cases of fraud, bribery and corruption,” the Home Office said as part of a document announcing the new National Crime Agency in Britain.
The N.C.A. is Britain’s attempt to form a national police agency similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agency “went live” this week.
The Home Office, which overseas immigration, crime policy and counterterrorism operations in Britain, did not give a timetable for when any decision would be made.
White-collar crime can be particularly difficult to uncover. Cooperating witnesses and whistle-blowers are often crucial sources of information for prosecutors as they pursue such cases.
In the United States, whistle-blowers can file lawsuits anonymously on behalf of the government under the False Claims Act, which was put in place after fraud by defense contractors during the Civil War. In the most serious cases, the Justice Department steps in and litigates the cases, with whistle-blowers receiving a portion of any financial penalties.
Since 1986, the Justice Department’s civil fraud section has recovered more than $20 billion in settlements and judgments, including whistle-blower actions.
The Securities and Exchange Commission established its own whistle-blower office in 2011 after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial industry reform bill passed in response to the financial crisis.
Under the S.E.C.’s program, whistle-blowers who supply high-quality information that results in sanctions exceeding $1 million can receive rewards representing up to 30 percent of those sanctions.
Last week, the S.E.C. announced that it had awarded more than $14 million to a whistle-blower in an action that led to the recovery of substantial investor funds, its largest award to date.
“Our whistle-blower program already has had a big impact on our investigations by providing us with high quality, meaningful tips,” the S.E.C. chairwoman, Mary Jo White, said at the time.