New US Whistleblower Reward Program Bolsters Anti-Money Laundering Fight

PartnerMary Inman was quoted in The Banker article, “New US whistleblower reward scheme bolsters AML fight”, published on January 14, 2021.

A new anti-money laundering (AML) whistleblower reward program was included in the US government defense spending bill recently passed by Congress. This program arose in the wake of the FinCEN Files leak, revealing how fraudsters successfully moved millions of dollars of stolen money worldwide through the US and global banks.

The new program allows US and international whistleblowers to report money laundering to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  If Treasury uses that information to impose a fine on the wrongdoer, the whistleblower may receive up to 30% of the collected monetary sanctions provided they exceed $1,000,000. Highlighting the potential for this new program, Inman noted:

• “Previously, a whistleblower might have critical information about a money-laundering scheme but no idea how to tell the relevant authorities.”
• “Now, any whistleblower will know exactly where to go, who to tell and how to report. And law enforcement, on the other end, will have a set procedure for how to receive this information and properly investigate it.”
• “Money-laundering violations have generally fallen through the cracks in the whistleblower infrastructure in the US. This new law goes a long way towards filling those gaps.”
• “By design, money laundering is extraordinarily hard to detect without a whistleblower insider. As the FinCEN files investigation confirms, criminals often wash their illegal proceeds via an elaborate series of shell corporations located in offshore and favorable onshore jurisdictions throughout the world.”
• “As the Danske Bank and Wirecard scandals have proven, international whistleblowers are essential to unlocking the complexities of far-reaching money-laundering schemes to US authorities.”

Read More:

• Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Program
• Financial & Investment Fraud
• The FinCEN Files Prove We Need an Anti-Money-Laundering Whistleblower Program
• I think I have a whistleblower case
• Whistleblower FAQs

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Financial Institution Fraud, International Whistleblowers, Money Laundering, Whistleblower Rewards,