U.S. Whistleblower Laws

The United States has been a leading influence in enacting whistleblower laws with key protections and incentives, including confidential handling of disclosures, financial awards, and independent reporting channels. Currently, there are dozens of laws at the federal, state, and local levels designed to encourage whistleblowers to come forward.

False Claims Act

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

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Reverse False Claims

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.

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Dodd-Frank Act

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

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IRS Whistleblower Law

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.

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Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

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.

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Lacey Act

Originally enacted in 1900, the Lacey Act is one of the United States’ oldest and most powerful wildlife protection laws and has strong whistleblower provisions.

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Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships

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.

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Law Library

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

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