In response to the 2008 financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July 2010, which, among other things, created the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Whistleblower Program. A decade later, the program has proven to be successful in generating high-quality tips that have enabled the SEC to halt fraud schemes and protect investors. Since 2012, the SEC Office of the Whistleblower has issued more than $700 million in awards to whistleblowers. The SEC actions associated with those tips have resulted in orders against wrongdoers totaling more than $2.7 billion.

According to the ACFE’s 2020 Report to the Nations, there has been a notable increase in tips via companies’ hotlines or reporting mechanisms since 2010. While internal reporting can be an effective method of exposing wrongdoing, individuals should consider the SEC Whistleblower Program as another powerful tool in their arsenal. There are five main reasons why the SEC Whistleblower Program is successful in rooting out fraud.

Earlier this year, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina was accused of “multiple abuses and breaches of the Bank’s code of ethics.” As reported by a French newspaper, among other things, Adesina was accused of “violation of the code of conduct” and “hindrance to efficiency (…) affecting confidence in the integrity” of the bank. The employees were reported to have made use of the bank’s Whistle Blowing and Complaints Handling Policy, which permits anonymous disclosures.

On January 19, they filed a complaint and forwarded an 11-page document to AfDB's Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department, detailing 16 cases of alleged abuse.

After years of working with these issues on a global scale, we are happy to see Australia becoming the next in an increasingly longer line of jurisdictions moving to enhance the protection of whistleblowers. The Australian Senate recently adopted the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Bill 2017. According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the new laws will affect approximately 33,000 companies in Australia. Costs of non-compliance can be high, including criminal prosecution and million-dollar fines.