The Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ Antitrust Division) has announced that it is launching a Whistleblower Rewards Program that will offer monetary awards to individuals who report antitrust crimes. The new program, run in partnership with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG), offers qualifying whistleblowers up to thirty percent of any criminal fines recovered as a result of the reported information. The USPS OIG is a member of the Justice Department's Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), which investigates and prosecutes antitrust crimes and related schemes in government procurement.
In a July 8, 2025 press release, DOJ Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater said the new whistleblower program will create “a new pipeline of leads from individuals with firsthand knowledge of criminal antitrust and related offenses that will help us break down those walls of secrecy and hold violators accountable.” The new program is part of a broader trend of initiatives rolled out by the Justice Department in recent years that offer the promise of monetary rewards for eligible whistleblowers that provide actionable information to authorities about a variety of federal crimes.1
DOJ Antitrust Division seeks “specific, credible and timely information” about potential antitrust crimes
A May 7, 2025 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the USPS, USPS OIG, and DOJ Antitrust Division provides details about what type of information will merit a potential monetary reward under the new whistleblower program. According to the MOU, the information provided by a whistleblower must be:
- Provided voluntarily by an “eligible whistleblower”2;
- Sufficiently specific and credible;
- Original and unrelated to conduct about which the Antitrust Division, USPIS or USPS OIG is already aware;
- Concern an “Eligible Criminal Violation” and
- Related to a violation of law affecting the U.S. Postal Service, its revenues, or property and resulting in an identifiable harm to the USPS.3
The DOJ Antitrust Division will be tasked with determining whether the reported information concerns an Eligible Criminal Violation for purposes of the Whistleblower Rewards Program. Eligible Criminal Violations include criminal violations of the Sherman Act, as well as other federal criminal violations that:
- Are committed to effectuate, facilitate, or conceal violations of the Sherman Act;
- Target or affect federal, state, or local public procurement; and
- Target or affect the conduct of federal competition investigations or proceedings.
In addition, the MOU lays out criteria that the Antitrust Division will assess4 in determining the amount of a potential award under the Whistleblower Rewards Program. Factors that the Antitrust Division will consider include, but are not limited to, whether the information provided: was directly related to a successful criminal prosecution; supported one or more criminal convictions; or resulted in the conservation of government resources. In addition, the DOJ Antitrust Division will also evaluate whether the whistleblower provided ongoing, extensive, and timely cooperation; faced any unique hardship as a result of his or her reporting the criminal activity; participated in the criminal violation reported; and received any award from any other government agency for reporting factually related conduct, or recovered in any related civil suit.
Qualifying whistleblowers will receive between fifteen to thirty percent of the recovered criminal fine, to be paid by the USPS. Criminal antitrust fines vary significantly: in 2023, for example, the average individual and corporate criminal fines for defendants convicted of antitrust crimes were approximately $157,000 and $22 million, respectively. In 2024, these average fines decreased to approximately $59,000 (individual) and 3.3 million (corporate).5
Takeaways
The Whistleblower Rewards Program could negatively impact the DOJ Antitrust Division’s Leniency Program, which offers leniency to corporations that self-report antitrust crimes to the government.6Corporations may avoid prosecution for criminal antitrust charges by being “first-in” to the government to report involvement in cartel conduct. As a result of the new whistleblower program, however, employees may be incentivized to bypass corporate reporting channels and bring information directly to the government in order to be eligible for a potential monetary reward under the new program. Without the benefit of receiving internal whistleblower reports from employees within the organization, corporations may not become privy to valuable information that could support a corporate leniency application and lead to potential immunity for the company.
As a result, companies should prioritize compliance efforts and boost whistleblower incentives within their organizations to make internal reporting as seamless as possible for individual employees. In addition to establishing clear reporting channels for employee complaints, companies should maintain and publicize a robust compliance program that, among other things, encourages an open-door policy for whistleblowers and outlines specific protections the company will provide to potential whistleblowers to encourage candor.
References
- In April 2024, the Justice Department announced the launch of a Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program to fill “important gaps in existing federal whistleblower programs.” In addition, in May 2025 the Justice Department announced the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which will allow eligible whistleblowers that provide information about “any recipient of federal funds that knowingly violates federal civil rights laws” to file a qui tam action under the False Claim Act and potentially receive a portion of any monetary recovery resulting from the litigation.
-
Eligible Whistleblowers must not have been a leader or originator of the illegal activity, or coerced another party to participate in the illegal activity.
-
A designated USPIS official will assess whether the allegations reasonably articulate “violations of law affecting the Postal Service, its revenues, or property” pursuant to 39 U.S.C. §404(a)(7), and will communicate their findings to the DOJ Antitrust Division to be used in its consideration of the whistleblower’s eligibility for a reward under the new program.
-
The MOU states that the DOJ Antitrust Division will make its assessment in consultation with USPIS and USPS OIG, but will retain sole discretion for the final determination of the amount of the award to be remitted to the whistleblower.
-
See Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Workload Statistics, FY 2015-2024, available here.
- Although individuals can also apply for amnesty, typically companies apply for amnesty and then seek coverage for employees.
[View source.]
