Federal prosecutors announced that the Southern District of Florida has launched its own Whistleblower Non-Prosecution Pilot Program to encourage voluntary self-disclosure by individuals involved in certain types of non-violent criminal conduct involving corporations, such as financial crimes, corporate crimes, health care fraud, and public corruption.

Under the program, an individual will not be prosecuted if the person discloses criminal conduct that isn’t already known to the prosecutors; cooperates with the authorities; and pays any applicable victim restitution.

Self disclosure

Receiving the non-prosecution agreement (NPA) will depend on the individual self-disclosing, fully cooperating with authorities, and paying any applicable victim compensation, restitution, or forfeiture, including returning any ill-gotten gains, plus the other specified conditions noted above. One of those conditions is that the government was not previously aware of the criminal conduct that is the subject of the disclosure. 

The NPAs are meant to incentivize individuals (and their counsel) to provide original and actionable information. The US Attorney’s Office notes that incentivizing the disclosure “will help law enforcement investigate and prosecute criminal conduct that might otherwise go undetected or be difficult to prove and encourage companies to create compliance programs that help prevent, detect, and remediate misconduct.”

Other programs

The program is similar to the one federal prosecutors launched in Manhattan at the Southern District of New York earlier this year.

Last month, the Department of Justice joined several other federal agencies in a three-year whistleblower pilot program that outlined the circumstances under which prosecutors will offer leniency to cooperating witnesses and other individuals through use of an NPA when the individual reports potential criminal misconduct involving corporations.

Referring to the Florida program, US Attorney Markenzy Lapointe said: “We encourage people who qualify for the Whistleblower Program to take advantage of the opportunity to come clean, cooperate, and get on the right side of the law. Our message is clear: contact us before we contact you.”