Statistics released recently by four separate federal agencies with jurisdiction over handling retaliation complaints filed by corporate whistleblowers and/or administering “bounty hunter” awards given to whistleblowers who reported alleged fraud against the U.S. government show all-time highs in both categories.
For example, the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which enforces more than 20 federal laws protecting whistleblowers from retaliation, reports that complaints it received were up 6% in Fiscal Year 2015 (October 1, 2014 – September 30, 2015) over the previous year. The Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that rewards paid to bounty hunters under the federal False Claims Act hit an all-time high of nearly $600 million, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) report that bounty hunter awards were up under programs established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law as well.