Reward whistleblowers for information, says SFO chief

THE new director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) wants to pay whistleblowers who help with investigations.

Nick Ephgrave, who took over the post at the end of last year, said that unlike the US, Britain seemed reluctant to pay those who spoke out.

He made the comments in his first speech in the role and said that the SFO had to speed up the time it took to investigate cases.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall on Tuesday evening, he said: “I think we should pay whistleblowers.

“If you look at the example of the United States of America, their system allows that, and I think 86 per cent of the $2.2 billion [£1.7 million] in civil settlements and judgments recovered by the US Department of Justice were based on whistleblower information.

“Since 2012, 700 UK nationals have gone to America to whistleblow because they feel they can’t do it here because there isn’t that incentivisation.”

Mr Ephgrave’s comments are contrast to remarks made by some of his predecessors.

David Green, who was head of the agency from 2012 to 2018, argued moral responsibility should encourage people to come forward and said paying for such information “just isn’t British”.

Last year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission paid out its largest-ever award to a whistleblower, at almost $279 million.

Established in 2010, the SEC’S whistleblower office encourages people with information about financial misconduct to help the agency bring cases.

To get paid, whistleblowers must provide information that leads to an SEC enforcement case of more than $1million. They can be paid between 10 per cent and 30 per cent of the total of the fines collected.

Mr Ephgrave, former chief constable of Surrey police, said that UK investigators had to think about how difficult it was to be a whistleblower.

“Do you blow the whistle and risk never working again… It is not easy to do, even if it is morally the right thing,” he said.