DOJ and Postal Service Create Breakthrough Antitrust Whistleblower Award Program

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Postal Service have established the first whistleblower award program incentivizing insiders with original information to blow the whistle on criminal antitrust violations.

This breakthrough in whistleblower protections closes a massive loophole where whistleblowers reporting antitrust violations are often retaliated against without any opportunity to obtain monetary compensation.

“Establishing this program is a creative and important step forward, protecting consumers from price-fixing and antitrust violations,” said Stephen M. Kohn whistleblower attorney at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto and Chairman of the Board at National Whistleblower Center.

“Although Congress has not passed an antitrust whistleblower law, the Justice Department and Postal Service’s new program potentially creates an effective means to incentivize whistleblowers to come forward. Whistleblowers take enormous risks — and often sacrifice their careers when trying to report crimes. The DOJ and Postal Service’s new program is an excellent first step in helping whistleblowers do the right thing in stopping price-fixing, antitrust violations, and corporate crimes.”

The program adopts many of the features in the highly successful False Claims Act, IRS, and Dodd-Frank whistleblower laws. It establishes a presumption that qualified whistleblowers obtain awards between 15-30% in cases where the sanctions against the corporate wrongdoers are over $1 million.

“Although the new Antitrust Whistleblower Program vests discretion in the DOJ to deny awards without any judicial review, it is our hope that Justice will honestly administer this program. Ultimately, it is up to Congress to create a mandatory and judicially enforceable whistleblower law covering antitrust, just as they have done in the highly successful tax, government contracting, securities, commodities, and money laundering and sanctions violations.”

Read the DOJ/Postal Service Memorandum Establishing the Antitrust Whistleblower Program: https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1407261/dl?inline

Mr. Kohn is available for further comment on the matter.

Contact Information

Jeana Lee

Programs Coordinator

National Whistleblower Center

jeana.lee@whistleblowers.org