Most of us are familiar with the headlines of whistleblower rewards in the millions of dollars.

While not common, a whistleblower reward is feasible given the many programs that now support people to come forward with information of wrongdoing.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners recently said that 43% of fraud is found through tips provided by someone within an organization.

Less than 15% is uncovered by management or internal auditors, and outside auditors find only 3%.

“No question, whistleblowing is effective,” says fraud expert Kristin Rivera at PricewaterhouseCooper. “I always say, if you want to find a needle, look in the sewing kit, not the haystack. Likewise, if I wanted to find fraud in a company, I’d go to the [whistleblower] hotline.”

Who Receives a Whistleblower Reward?

A whistleblower is any person who offers information regarding wrongdoing to the authorities. The questionable acts are illegal and can be hidden under layers of minutia.

More than 55 federal laws protect or encourage whistleblower rewards, and 44 states plus Washington D.C. provide varying degrees of legal protection.

The oldest whistleblower law is the False Claims Act that dates back to the Civil war when it was designed to protect whistleblowers from defense contractors’ overpriced goods.

This whistleblower law made the news in the 1980s when defense department purchases of $400 screw drivers and $600 toilet seats were brought to light by whistleblowers.

This act encompasses any person or entity that defrauds the government. Eighty percent of the cases heard involve health care. Military defense, energy, construction and mortgage fraud are other industries that have a notable number of claims.

What makes this act so interesting and empowering to whistleblowers is that it includes a provision that enables private citizens to file suit on behalf of the government, and providing a whistleblower reward for doing so.

Called qui tam, Latin for “in the name of the king,” the law allows citizens to collect 15% to 30% of the money recovered in a whistleblower lawsuit, and that can total up to three times the amount of the initial alleged fraud.

Your chances of winning a whistleblower lawsuit improve greatly if the Department of Justice joins your team. Most cases take just over three years to resolve, and half settle for $2 million or less. After all is said and done, the average whistleblower reward is around $320,000.

Whistleblower Protection Laws

Any employee who has been fired or demoted or otherwise unfairly treated after blowing the whistle on illegal maneuvers has protection under the law.

OSHA administers anti-retaliation statutes that help people win back a lost job, back pay, lawyers’ fees and compensatory damages.

However, these cases can take two or three years and $10,000 to $20,000 to get off the ground.

The most notable law that helps whistleblowers in this type of situation is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act enacted in 2002.

The act extends protection to employees who blow the whistle on fraud, such as misrepresented financial earnings, that negatively affects a public company’s shareholders.

Keeping mum on illegal activity is never a good idea, but it can be most stressful when it involves an employee’s workplace. It’s good to know there are myriad whistleblower laws that not only protect, but also reward, the employee who comes forward.