This study examines how whistleblower reward programmes perform in practice, testing whether the objections raised against them have actually materialised. It then identifies the conditions that must be met for such a scheme to function within a broader effort to strengthen economic crime investigations, and closes with recommendations for policymakers weighing the adoption of whistleblower rewards.
Key Benefits of Reward Programmes include:
- Increased Intelligence: Access to hard-to-find insider data on foreign bribery, money laundering, and tax fraud.
- Deterrence Effect: High-profile payouts discourage corporations and executives from engaging in illicit financial activities.
- Cost Efficiency: Speeds up investigations, reducing the investigative burden on regulatory and law enforcement agencies.
- Resource Access: Enables tipsters to afford specialized legal counsel to navigate complex reporting frameworks. [1, 2, 3, 4]
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Eliza Lockhart is a Research Fellow (now listed as Senior Research Fellow) at the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI (the Royal United Services Institute). Her research examines matters at the intersection of law, finance, and global security, with a particular focus on how evidence-based policy can promote democratic resilience and protect the rule of law against foreign interference. Her current projects include whistleblowing, state threats and economic security.
She’s a qualified lawyer and legal policy expert. She previously worked in Australia for Linklaters, with experience in international financial crime investigations, whistleblower investigations, and high-profile litigation, and before joining RUSI she was Associate to The Hon. Justice Kenny AM, a senior judge of the Federal Court of Australia. She studied law at the University of Cambridge.
