New publications launch! Financial Rewards for Whistleblowers in the Fight Against

Today see’s publication of research on the role of financial rewards for whistleblowers in the fight against economic crime, produced by Eliza Lockhart, at RUSI. At a 0 December launch event hosted at RUSI, panellists, Nick Ephgrave QPM, Director, Serious Fraud Office, Susan Hawley, Executive Director, Spotlight on Corruption, and Judith Seddon, Partner, Ashurst, joined Eliza Lockhart to discuss the importance of economic crime whistleblowers and the need to increase the effectiveness of economic crime detection and deterrence.

The full research paper and accompanying briefing note, which can be found on the SOC ACE project page, 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 research offers observations for consideration by those thinking about designing and implementing whistleblower reward schemes. 

As international interest grows in the role whistleblowers can play in supporting wider strategies to combat economic crime, the research has been featured in Monday 9 December Financial Times article by Suzi Ring and Martin Arnold, titled, ‘UK should pay whistleblowers to cut financial crime, says think-tank’ .