The extent and breadth of white-collar crime and misconduct has been revealed by decades of corporate scandals, ranging from repeated revelations of wage theft and tax evasion by major corporations, to the widespread abuse of market power revealed by the Price Gouging Inquiry,1 to the shocking and anti-democratic PwC tax scandal.2 Despite these revelations, a considerable amount of white-collar cr. [...] 5 • 2023: a consultation paper from the Attorney-General’s Department discusses the use of whistleblower rewards in the context of the public sector whistleblowing stage 2 reforms.6 • 2024: following his chairing of the ACTU’s price gouging inquiry, Professor Allan Fels AO publicly called for the implementation of an Australian whistleblower rewards scheme, citing the successes of the US experienc. [...] This means that people outside of the US with knowledge of corporate wrongdoing are also incentivised to reveal this misconduct.65 FALSE CLAIMS ACT The False Claims Act criminalises knowingly submitting, or causing the submission, of false claims to the federal government.66 The Act makes the perpetrator liable for three times the damage to the government plus a penalty. [...] Other lessons for Australia include the importance of allowing a broad range of people to benefit from the scheme (for instance non-residents) and the potential impact of capping possible rewards on the schemes’ incentives. [...] The most important advantage of the system to the informant is that there would be a guarantee of financial reward independent of the circumstances of the offending individual or corporation.
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Table of Contents
- Over 20 years ago the Australia Institute recommended 1
- Contents 3
- Summary 4
- Introduction 5
- White-collar crime corporate crime and whistleblowing 7
- DEFINITIONS 7
- RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WHITE-COLLAR CRIME AND WHISTLEBLOWING 7
- White-collar crime prevalence harm and recent scandals 8
- COLLUSION 8
- INSIDER TRADING 9
- EXPANDING THE SCOPE 11
- Financial industry 11
- Wage theft 12
- Tax evasion 12
- Data management 13
- Management consultants 13
- Price gouging and abuse of market power 13
- Current whistleblowing regime 15
- PROTECTIONS 15
- SUPPORT 16
- INCENTIVES 16
- International experience the United States 18
- DODD-FRANK ACT 18
- FALSE CLAIMS ACT 19
- INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE IRS 20
- FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REFORM RECOVERY AND ENFORCEMENT ACT 20
- SYSTEMS OUTSIDE OF THE UNTIED STATES 21
- LESSONS FOR AUSTRALIA 21
- The ROGUE scheme 22
- BENEFITS OF ROGUE REWARDS FOR WHISTLEBLOWERS 22
- BENEFITS OF ROGUE PAYMENT SYSTEM 24
- POTENTIAL PROBLEMS 24
- Conclusion 26
