Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0003-8399-0096

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Keywords

Whistleblowing, Prevention, Detection, SEC, Bounties, Corporate wrongdoing, Prosecutors

Abstract

Whistleblower programs (WBPs) expose hidden corporate wrongdoing. They do so by offering retaliation protection and financial bounties to those who bring original information to law enforcement about unseen, and often complex, misconduct. Under a standard account, whistleblowing serves the public interest by increasing the ex post detection of illegal activity and the ex ante risk of its exposure. That standard view—which centers whistleblowing on detecting wrongdoing—is incomplete, however. To present a fuller view, this Article introduces a complementary model that refocuses whistleblowing as preventing wrongdoing. Working together, these models show that a WBP can do more than enable detection at the late moment when misconduct is afoot. It can also prompt action against wrongdoing that has yet begun. This prevention/detection distinction exposes potential conflicts between public and corporate interests versus those of whistleblowers and prosecutors. The former interests favor early whistleblowing that intervenes against inchoate wrongdoing. Whistleblowers and prosecutors, however, have financial, personal, and political incentives more consistent with late whistleblowing. Given those incentives, under some conditions, whistleblowers could strategically delay reporting; meanwhile, prosecutors might be weakly motivated to police such delays. Current policy fosters this conflict by embracing the detection model alone. As a consequence, it privileges the interests of whistleblowers and prosecutors over those of the public and firms. But, the Article urges, an approach to WBP design that embraces both prevention and detection could achieve closer alignment between the interests of the public, firms, whistleblowers, and prosecutors in timing whistleblowing.

First Page

737

Publication Title

The Business Lawyer

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