— information courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina
U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. has announced that the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina has implemented the EDNC Whistleblower Pilot Program.
“In this office, we are focused on enhancing the identification and prosecution of white-collar crime,” Easley said in a written statement released Friday. “The EDNC Whistleblower Pilot Program achieves that by incentivizing individuals to proactively come forward with information about crimes taking place within corporations. The benefit to the participant, if qualified, is avoiding prosecution. We encourage all who may have information on fraud, corruption, or corporate crime, to fill out the short form on our website.”
To encourage early voluntary self-disclosure of criminal conduct and to promote effective enforcement of criminal laws, the office has implemented the EDNC Whistleblower Pilot Program. The program applies to circumstances where an individual discloses information regarding certain covered subjects identified in the policy to this office, Easley’s statement explained. Covered subjects include criminal conduct undertaken by or through public or private entities or organizations, including corporations, partnerships, non-profits, exchanges, financial institutions, investment advisers, or investment funds involving fraud or corporate control failures; intellectual property theft and related violations; or offenses affecting market integrity.
The policy also applies to disclosed criminal conduct involving state or local bribery or fraud relating to federal, state or local funds. The policy does not apply to offenses involving violence. Provided all policy conditions are met, this office will enter into a deferred or non-prosecution agreement with the whistleblower.
By clarifying the requirements and benefits of such self-disclosure, this office seeks to incentivize individuals (and their counsel) to provide actionable and timely information. This will, in turn, help us expose more misconduct and better protect the communities we serve.
Find a complete copy of the policy, along with the application at:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/ednc-whistleblower-pilot-program
(Originally posted to WIZS.com Jan. 24, 2025)
Click Play!
