Rewards For Reporting FCPA Violations

 A whistleblower award is a payment you can receive from the U.S. government when you report a violation of U.S. law. An FCPA Whistleblower award is a payment you can receive for reporting violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This can include providing information on companies who commit fraud, bribery or corrupt activities. The average whistleblower award is almost $5 million.  If you want to claim a multi-million dollar whistleblower award, contact us now.

First, use our online evaluation to find out if you qualify for an award. If you qualify, our attorneys will handle everything for you for free, in exchange for part of your reward. If you don't get a reward, you don't pay anything. 

The average award paid by the SEC is almost $5 million. 

When you work for an American company, or a company with stock traded in the United States, it's important to know what the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) says about bribing foreign officials. You might think that the law only applies to bribes paid by companies from other countries, but it also applies to bribery within the U.S. itself. And if you report a company for violating the FCPA you could be entitled to some pretty big financial rewards! 

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is a U.S. law that prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign officials. The FCPA applies to any person or company that does business in the United States and can result in criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment for up to 10 years per violation.

The FCPA was enacted in 1977 as part of a broader anti-corruption effort by the U.S. government to maintain transparency within U.S.-based companies who are doing business abroad. The goal was simple: Make sure businesses were not taking advantage of their access to foreign officials so they could win contracts at lower costs than competitors would pay if they didn’t play by these rules. 

Some whistleblower lawyers, like those at FTI Law, specialize in representing a certain type of whistleblower. We specialize in representing FCPA whistleblowers, which means whistleblowers who want to report bribery or corruption committed by a company traded on a US stock exchange. Often, FCPA whistleblowers are not from the United States, and we have cross-border expertise that helps us guide non-U.S. nationals through the whistleblower process. If you want to explore the idea of becoming an FCPA whistleblower, make sure to talk to one of our FCPA whistleblower attorneys as soon as possible.  

FCPA fines are enormous, and often run into the billions of dollars. For example:

• In 2019 Swedish Telecom Giant Ericsson paid over $1 Billion to settle charges that it violated the FCPA in multiple countries by bribing public officials to win business. 
• In 2020, French aeronautics company Airbus paid more than $3 billion to settle charges that it had made payments to government officials to help its business. 
• In 2018, Brazilian Energy behemoth Petrobras paid over $1.7 billion to settle corruption and bribery charges. 

A lot of companies have paid FCPA fines, here are a few:  

• 2008 -  Siemens AG paid $350 million  to settle the SEC’s charges of violating the FCPA, as well as a $450 million fine to the DOJ to settle criminal charges.
• 2014 - ALCOA paid $175 million to the SEC and a fine of $209 million for bribing government officials in Bahrain.
• 2014 - Marubeni Corporation paid an $88 million fine for paying bribes to Indonesian government officials in order to win business.
• 2016 -  Och-Ziff paid $413 million to settle charges that the paid bribes to government officials in Africa.
• 2016 - JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $264 million  for hiring relatives of government officials who had influence over JP Morgan's business. 
• 2016 - Odebrecht paid $3.5 billion following an enormous bribery scandal in Brazil.
• 2016 - Teva Pharmaceutical paid $519 million to settle charges that it paid bribes in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico. 
• 2017 - Rolls-Royce paid $809 million as a result of a long-running scheme to bribe government officials in exchange for government contracts.  
• 2017 - Orthofix International agreed to pay more than $14 million to settle charges that it bribes doctors hospitals in Brazil in order to win more business. 

Yes. With the help of FTI Law, you can report anonymously. 

Many government agencies pay whistleblower rewards, but FTI Law specializes in helping people report to the most successful whistleblower program which is run by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

FTI Law specializes in helping people report violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) but you can also report violations of any Securities Law, Commodities law or tax law to the SEC, CFTC or IRS.  

The quickest and easiest way to find out is to take FTI Law's online evaluation here. 

It's an award winning way to give you quick, simple answer for free.

If you think your company has violated the FCPA, you should say something. However, it is important to understand the risks and rewards associated with reporting FCPA violations. First, let's take a look at the risks of reporting to your supervisor. 

If you think your company has committed an FCPA violation and you tell your supervisor, be prepared for the repercussions. FCPA violations are criminal and if your supervisor or others in the company think you are accusing them of being involved, they may retaliate against you in any number of ways:

• They may not promote or reward you for your efforts.
• They could take away perks that were previously      available to you and other employees who have helped them with their illegal activities;
• They could even fire you because they don't want anyone  around who knows what is going on behind closed doors at work.

Even if your company has a confidential reporting hotline, most whistleblowers will tell you that it is impossible to keep your identity a secret once you report within an organization. Ultimately, there is a lot of downside risk for reporting internally, and virtually no upside risk. Hopefully some day this will change, and companies will provide whistleblower rewards to people who report violations, but for now, reporting internally is not a very good course of action. 

If you're not sure whether your company would do the right thing and report an FCPA violation, then it's best to take matters into your own hands. The good news is that the SEC lets you report FCPA violations anonymously if you enlist the help of an attorney. In addition, the SEC will pay whistleblowers up to 30% of any fine they recover as a bounty for reporting the violation. The average whistleblower reward paid by the SEC is almost $5 million. This means you could become a millionaire for doing the right thing.

Another benefit of reporting to the SEC is that whistleblowers who report FCPA violations to the SEC get additional protections against retaliation from their employers. This means that if your company retaliates against you for speaking to the SEC, you can sue them for damages. However, these protections only apply to workers in the United States. Employees from abroad can claim whistleblower awards, but are not entitled to legal protection against retaliation. 

Yes.  On May 19, 2021, the SEC announced an award of more than $28 million to a whistleblower whose tip led to Panasonic paying a $281 million FCPA settlement with a U.S.-regulators. 

The SEC receives between 100-200 FCPA tips each year. Here are the figures: 

• 2020 – 208 FCPA tips 
• 2019 – 200 FCPA tips 
• 2018 – 202 FCPA tips 
• 2017 – 210 FCPA tips 
• 2016 – 238 FCPA tips 
• 2015 – 186 FCPA tips
• 2014 – 159 FCPA tips 
• 2013 – 149 FCPA tips 
• 2012 – 115 FCPA tips 

Whoever you choose to report to, it's important to provide as much information about the corrupt activity to investigators as possible: names of people involved; dates and times when they were involved; what happened during those activities; details about any meetings or correspondence between them and others who are also being investigated. If you want to remain anonymous, be careful about providing documents or communications that might reveal who you are. If you are using an attorney (which we highly recommend) then they will be able to review these for you. 

You are not required to use a lawyer when whistleblowing. However, if you don’t submit your claim correctly you may lose your entitlement to your award.  Using a qualified and experienced law firm like FTI Law to help your application can provide a number of benefits as well as avoid common mistakes when reporting: 

•  Using an attorney can help ensure that your claim gets noticed and investigated. The Office of the Whistleblower receives a lot of information and it doesn't have the resources to investigate every claim;
• Using an attorney also ensures that you can maximize the award by making the strongest possible case;
• Using an attorney allows you to report anonymously  in some circumstances;
• An attorney will take care of the legal procedures including making sure you meet submission deadlines.  It also provides you with an advocate in the United States who can speak on your behalf ; 
• Our online evaluation and consultation process are provided free of charge.  If you do wish to engage us we work on contingency meaning we only get paid, if you get paid. 

FTI Law has years of experience representing individuals and investigating FCPA, SEC and other corporate crime violations.  We can quickly provide advice on how to maximize your claim and make sure you submit your claim before someone beats you to it.  The first step is to take the online evaluation.