- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Neil Hodge2024-04-29T11:39:00
The European Union’s strong stance on whistleblower protection has been undermined by member states’ wildly different approaches to punishing organizations that fail to safeguard people who raise concerns, says a leading speak-up campaigner.
Pav Gill, the whistleblower in the fraud scandal at German payments firm Wirecard, believes that while Europe is serious about encouraging people to blow the whistle, the level of legal protection can vary so much that in some cases it becomes almost negligible.
In Spain, for example, organizations can face penalties of up to 1 million euros (U.S. $1.1 million) for serious failure to protect whistleblowers and/or a three-year ban on entering into contracts with public-sector entities. However, in Germany, a fine for the same offense is capped at just €50,000 (U.S. $54,000).
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The Department of Justice is set to join a growing list of U.S. federal agencies to have a whistleblower reward program in place, but how impactful it will be at generating more white-collar investigations and prosecutions rides on its initial design, according to experts.
When Nick Ephgrave of the Serious Fraud Office said in his maiden speech he favored paying whistleblowers in exchange for information, he might not have been fully aware of the implications, according to legal experts.
The Wirecard fraud highlights the result of regulators and auditors failing to act properly and underlines the importance of encouraging and protecting whistleblowers, said the reporter who exposed the firm in speaking at Compliance Week’s Europe conference in London.
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Health and Human Services partnered to create an online portal for the public to report instances of anticompetitive practices in the healthcare sector.
The Department of Justice launched a new pilot program that encourages voluntary self-disclosure by corporate executives who are themselves involved in financial misconduct, with the incentive of a nonprosecution agreement for those who help an agency investigation.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a landmark whistleblower award of approximately $1.25 million to an individual in an internal compliance or audit function who came forward with information on misconduct occurring at his or her employer.
