In this episode of S&C’s Critical Insights, Annie Ostrager, Co-Head of S&C’s Employment Law Group, Nic Bourtin, Head of the Criminal Defense and Investigations Group, and Litigation Associate Sabrina Solow discuss whistleblowing developments, including the DOJ Criminal Division’s Corporate Pilot Program and its recent changes under the new administration.
They also discuss recent cases involving the False Claims Act’s qui tam provision and touch briefly on the whistleblower provision of the 2020 Anti-Money Laundering Act.
A preview of the conversation can be found in the Q+A below.
Sabrina: Nic, could you give us the background on the DOJ Corporate Pilot Program?
Nic: In August 2024, Biden’s DOJ launched a three-year Corporate Pilot Program to encourage whistleblowers to come forward and report certain types of alleged corporate misconduct. The Program compensated whistleblowers who came forward with original information, so long as the information was not already covered by another whistleblower program and led to a successful forfeiture action. It was designed as a gap-filling program, meant to plug what DOJ viewed as gaps across other whistleblowing regimes.
Sabrina: How have this pilot program’s priorities shifted under this administration?
Annie: Likely as no surprise to our listeners, under the new administration, DOJ expanded the Pilot Program to cover customs and tariff fraud, federal immigration law, sanctions offenses, and violations relating to support of terrorism or cartels, which are all areas of enforcement priority.