- 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).
THIS IS MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. To continue reading, choose one of the options below.
News and analysis for the well-informed compliance or audit exec. Select an option and click continue.
Annual Membership $499 Value offer
Full price one year membership with auto-renewal.
Membership $599
One-year only, no auto-renewal.
Compliance Week Advisory Board members Eric Young and Ellen Hunt participate in a debate-style discussion regarding whistleblower-related topics including culture of compliance, monetary incentives, retaliation, and more.
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.
Two pairs of claimants will receive whistleblower awards totaling more than $98 million and $24 million, respectively, for information they provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission that led to an enforcement action.
Discrimination against whistleblowers in the U.K. has risen to such a level that the government may need to actively pursue plans to afford greater legal protection, as well as introduce financial awards to compensate for their “career suicide.”
The Department of Justice released the details of its long-awaited corporate whistleblower awards pilot program that will prioritize reporting in areas of corporate crime not currently covered by existing whistleblower programs.
