The White House is creating a $25 million fund that will pay people up to $30,000 each when their tips about fraud against the federal government lead to a conviction or a significant enforcement action, officials said Tuesday. The Justice Department will administer the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, known as WHIP, and tips must be submitted through the administration's fraud-reporting website.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance were scheduled to unveil the fund together at an Oval Office event on Tuesday. It is the latest initiative from the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which Trump created by executive order in March and placed under Vance as its chairman.
"Every day, President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud is zeroing in on the rampant abuse of taxpayer dollars and giving Americans the accountability they deserve," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said. "This administration has zero tolerance for individuals who steal from Americans."
Trump was also set to hand a $10,000 check to Nick Shirley, an online video creator whose footage last year alleged that members of Minnesota's Somali community were running fake child-care centers to collect federal subsidies. A White House official told USA Today that Shirley would receive the program's first whistleblower check.
The video caught the attention of the administration and conservative activists. Inspectors said the centers were operating as expected, The Associated Press reported, but investigations, searches and arrests followed. In July, according to the Justice Department, a child-care operator pleaded guilty to wire fraud and to conspiring to defraud the United States by submitting inflated reimbursement claims for meals supposedly served to children at her center. The White House says she appeared in Shirley's video.
Early descriptions of the rules differed on one point. The White House account relayed by the AP and by Fox News, which first reported the plan, makes a tip eligible when it leads to a conviction or a significant federal enforcement action, and Fox reported that an allegation alone would not qualify. The New York Post reported that a tip must produce a guilty verdict or plea before the informant can collect. The Post compared the program with a longstanding Internal Revenue Service program that pays tipsters 15% to 30% of the money recovered in tax fraud cases.
Federal law already gives some whistleblowers a share of what they help recover. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can file civil suits on the government's behalf against suspected fraud and may receive a portion of the government's recovery, USA Today noted. The new fund caps each award at $30,000.
Vance has used the task force for a string of high-profile actions. Last month he announced that 750,000 people would be removed from Affordable Care Act coverage over suspected fraudulent enrollment, with 450,000 more under review, the Post reported. He has also withheld some Medicaid reimbursements from states for programs deemed to be at high risk of fraud and suspended 447 hospice providers in California.
The rollout comes ahead of the midterm elections. USA Today reported that the program combines two themes Trump has pressed throughout his campaign travel: fighting fraud and sending government money directly to Americans.