Recording: Whistleblowers’ Rewards in the Fight Against Economic Crime

International interest is growing in the role whistleblowers can play in supporting wider strategies to combat economic crime. Recent high-profile scandals within the financial and professional services sectors have demonstrated how insider information can be critical to the successful detection, investigation and prosecution of these well-hidden crimes. Many countries have implemented reward programmes designed to incentivise whistleblowing across a range of illicit financial activities, including tax law violations, foreign bribery and corruption, securities and commodities malfeasance, cryptocurrency fraud, money laundering and sanctions evasion. 

A new research paper, written by RUSI Research Fellow Eliza Lockhart and funded by the SOC ACE Research Programme, considers the impact of whistleblower reward programmes and identifies what factors have been shown to be necessary for such schemes to operate as part of a wider strategy to increase the effectiveness of economic crime investigations. The paper examines evidence from whistleblower reward programmes currently in place in the US and Canada, and considers whether the main arguments against such programmes, historically made by reward-resistant jurisdictions such as the UK and Australia, have materialised in reality. 

The event included an overview of the research paper’s findings; followed by an expert panel discussion that considered the importance of economic crime whistleblowers and the need to increase the effectiveness of economic crime detection and deterrence.

SOC ACE is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. The views expressed in the report and discussion do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies. 

Panellists: 

• Nick Ephgrave QPM, Director, Serious Fraud Office
• Susan Hawley, Executive Director, Spotlight on Corruption 
• Eliza Lockhart, Research Fellow, Centre for Finance and Security, RUSI
• Judith Seddon, Partner, Ashurst