English v. General Electric Company, 85-ERA-2, Decision and Order of Administrative Law Judge (Aug. 1, 1985), reversed by Final Decision and Order of the Under Secretary of Labor (Jan. 13, 1987)

Ernesto Reuben and Matthew Stephenson, “Nobody likes a rat: On the willingness to report lies and the consequences thereof,” 93 Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 384 (Sept. 2013)

Statistics confirming the difficulty of winning a traditional retaliation case are published annually by the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA division.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Since the beginning of the program, the SEC has paid more than $1.3 billion in 328 awards to individuals for providing information that led to the success of SEC and other agencies’ enforcement actions.

Whistleblowers have played a critical role in the SEC’s enforcement efforts in protecting investors and the marketplace. Enforcement actions brought using information from meritorious whistleblowers have resulted in orders for more than $6.3 billion in total monetary sanctions, including more than $4.0 billion in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and interest, of which more than $1.5 billion has been, or is scheduled to be, returned to harmed investors. — “SEC Whistleblower Office Announces Results for 2022,” SEC (Nov. 15, 2022)

Statements in support of whistleblowers:

• “Strengthening Our Whistleblower Program,” SEC Chairman Jay Clayton (Sept. 2020),
• “Protecting Everyday Investors and Preserving Market Integrity: The SEC’s Division of Enforcement,” SEC Director of Enforcement Stephanie Avakian (Sept. 2020)
• “June Bug vs. Hurricane: Whistleblowers Fight Tremendous Odds and Deserve Better,” SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee (Sept. 2020)

U.S. Department of Justice

See, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Fraud Division: Fraud Statistics—Overview, www.doj.gov/civil/frauds (published annually). The overview effectiveness of reward laws was summarized in the Testimony of Stephen Kohn before the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform.

“Cash-for-information whistleblower programs: Effects on whistleblowing and consequences for whistleblowers,” was written by Harvard Business School professors Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese, and Gerardo Pérez Cavazos after they reviewed thousands of whistleblower reward cases under the False Claims Act.

Their findings…

• “support the view that cash-for-information programs help to expose misconduct”
• were “inconsistent with the critics’ view that greater financial incentives for whistleblowers trigger meritless lawsuits”

“Overall, our results suggest that the FCA cash-for-information program helps expose corporate misconduct and helps compensate whistleblowers for their income loss.” – 59 Journal of Accounting Research (December 2021), pp. 1689-1740.

The Harvard study was consistent with the research published by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business thirteen years before. See, Alexander Dyck et al., “Who Blows the Whistle on Corporate Fraud,” The Initiative on Global Market’s Working Paper No. 3, University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Oct. 2008).

Other studies that echo these findings:

• Andrew C. Call et al., “Whistleblowers and Outcomes of Financial Misrepresentation Enforcement Actions,” papers.ssrn.com (last revised February 21, 2023)
• Dennis J. Ventry Jr, “Not Just Whistling Dixie: The Case for Tax Whistleblowers in the States,” Villanova Law Review 59, no. 3 (Aug. 2015)
• Stephen Kohn, “Does Whistleblowing Work?” Pro Market, a publication of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Asher Schechter, “Experts: Financial Rewards and Protections are the Best Way to Incentivize Whistleblowers,” Pro Market, a publication of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The 2022 ACFE report explained the importance of whistleblower tips in identifying corporate fraud:

“Despite the increasing number of advanced fraud detection techniques available to organizations, tips were still the most common way occupational frauds were discovered in our study by a wide margin, as they have been in every one of our previous reports. As shown in Figure 10, 42% of cases in our study were uncovered by tips, which is nearly three times as many cases as the next most common detection method.” – Report to Nations, p. 21.

Information documenting that whistleblowers are the key source of information for uncovering fraud and corporate crimes are set forth in the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ annual publication, Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse and the Ethics Resource Center study, Blowing the Whistle on Workplace Misconduct, published by the ERC in December 2010.

Additional Information on the success of the modern whistleblower laws is set forth in the Conclusion.