U.S. Whistleblower Laws

The False Claims Act (FCA) is America's first whistleblower law and one of the strongest whistleblower laws in the United States.

In recent years, the False Claims Act has been applied in a new way: to instances in which a wrongdoer has prevented the government from collecting what it is owed.

The Dodd-Frank Act, passed after the 2008 financial crisis, created multiple whistleblower programs across agencies like the SEC and CFTC.

Whistleblowers looking to expose tax fraud can look to the IRS whistleblower provisions and potentially receive monetary rewards for successful sanctions against tax fraud violators.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has proven to be one of the most powerful and effective transnational anticorruption laws in the world. It has two main provisions, centered around anti-bribery and proper accounting.

Originally enacted in 1900, the Lacey Act is one of the United States’ oldest and most powerful wildlife protection laws and has strong whistleblower provisions.

In order to implement the provisions of MARPOL, the U.S. passed APPS in 1980. APPS includes whistleblower provisions to help combat illegal pollution and empower and incentivize workers to expose any known information about pollution from ships.

For a top level overview of the various U.S. laws, court precedents, and more impacting whistleblowers, visit NWC's Law Library.