Notes from the intake line, not a newsletter.
Written by whoever on the team had something worth documenting, usually right after an intake call raised a question we hear often.
Internal reporting and external reporting are not the same decision.
Reporting a concern up the chain internally is often the right first step, and sometimes it's legally required to preserve certain protections. But it is a genuinely separate decision from reporting to the SEC, IRS, or under the False Claims Act, with its own timelines and its own risks. Nobody should assume that doing one satisfies the other.
Most tips we evaluate don't meet the dollar threshold, and that's worth knowing early.
SEC and CFTC awards only apply once sanctions exceed $1 million; IRS awards generally require the disputed amount to exceed $2 million. A great deal of real, reportable misconduct simply doesn't reach that scale, and telling someone that plainly in the first conversation is more respectful of their time than letting hope carry a case that structurally can't qualify.
Original information matters more than most people expect.
Whistleblower programs generally reward information the government didn't already have from another source. A well-organized timeline that shows exactly what you knew and when you knew it isn't paperwork for its own sake — it's often the single factor that determines whether your information counts as original.
Retaliation protection is not automatic. It has to be triggered correctly.
Anti-retaliation provisions under Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley are real and meaningful, but they attach to specific, defined categories of protected activity. Understanding exactly what you did that counts as protected, and documenting it as it happens, matters far more than most people realize until they need to prove it later.
Sitting on information that might fit one of these programs? Get in touch — every initial conversation is confidential.