WASHINGTON, D.C. | December 9, 2024 — Ahead of the highly-anticipated Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) report on December 10th, the Financial Times has published an article teasing the preeminent report’s content. According to the article, the report is set to offer unequivocal, quantitative support for a UK whistleblower rewards program, along with an Office of the Whistleblower to support the payment scheme. As it stands now, tips from UK whistleblowers are one of the largest sources of intelligence from outside the U.S. to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A UK rewards system would incentivize these individuals to report financial crime to UK authorities, bolstering detection and prosecution in the country.
The upcoming RUSI report, “The Role of Rewards for Whistleblowers in the Fight Against Economic Crime,” is set to overturn research precedent in the United Kingdom which has positioned a UK whistleblower awards scheme as countercultural, ineffective, and uncondoned. Eliza Lockhart, Research Fellow at the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI, states that it is time for the UK to “get over the idea that a whistleblower is going to be this kind of moralistic hero that we put on a pedestal […] that perception is not helpful for investigators, and it is not fair on whistleblowers.”
The RUSI report adds support to the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) calls for a UK whistleblower reward scheme. SFO Director Nick Ephgrave has publicly backed a reward scheme, stating he “would like to see the UK move to a model where financial incentives are available to encourage whistleblowers to come forward.”
NWC Co-Founder and Board Chairman Stephen M. Kohn has played a critical role in the drafting of U.S. whistleblower award laws and was consulted for the RUSI report. Kohn praised the upcoming report, stating that it will be “a historic breakthrough for whistleblower protection and anti-corruption” and that it “recognized the incredible value of laws such as the Dodd-Frank and the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act,” two laws that Kohn played an integral role in drafting.
Kohn states that “we will continue to work with our partners in the UK and around the world advocating for effective whistleblower laws modeled on RUSI’s findings.”
NWC Board Chairman Stephen Kohn is available for comment. For more information, contact NWC at info@whistleblowers.org.
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NWC is the leading nonprofit working with whistleblowers worldwide to fight corruption and protect people and the environment. For over 30 years, NWC has won policies to protect whistleblowers from retaliation and reward them for helping deliver criminal and civil penalties against wrongdoers.
