Whistleblowers face difficult decisions. Do they protect their employers or do they report illegal behavior to the proper authorities? There are many practical and ethical considerations that face each whistleblower. The law tries to encourage whistleblowers to report inappropriate behavior to the proper authorities by providing financial incentives to certain whistleblowers who provide information to the government.
Last week news brokethat a Skokie based defense contractor agreed to pay $25 million dollars to settle charges that the contractor deliberately overcharged the government. The government’s case was built largely on the information provided by a whistleblower who made the government aware of the overcharging and agreed to wear a wire to obtain information against his employer. That whistleblower will receive $4.5 million dollars for the information that he provided to the government that resulted in this significant settlement with the defense contractor.
While the whistleblower is providing valuable information to the government, it is important for the whistleblower to be represented by independent counsel. A Chicago whistleblower attorneycan ensure that the whistleblower’s rights are protected and that he or she gets a percentage of the money recovered as a result of the information he or she provided, as allowed by law.