Sub-Saharan Anti-Corruption Leaders Meet with Whistleblower Expert
On January 26, Stephen M. Kohn, whistleblower attorney and founding partner of Kohn, Kohn, & Colapinto (KKC), spoke with representatives of the Sub-Saharan region at Cultural Vistas in Washington, D.C. to promote best-practice whistleblower laws that strengthen accountability. This meeting was facilitated by the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), a professional exchange which connects anti-corruption champions abroad with government and civil society leaders in the United States..
“Corruption is a hidden crime,” Kohn said. “Without whistleblowers, there is no form of detecting corruption, and without enforcement, corruption runs rampant.”
From money laundering to foreign bribery to market manipulation, the forms of grand corruption that impact Sub-Saharan Africa are transnational in nature, which open up opportunities for U.S. enforcement jurisdiction.
Therefore, whistleblowers in Sub-Saharan Africa can anonymously report these crimes to whistleblower offices at the appropriate U.S. enforcement agencies. If their disclosure contains original information which leads to an enforcement action, they may be eligible for large monetary rewards worth 10-30% of the sanction levied. Transnational whistleblower laws include the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act and the Dodd-Frank Act.
“I want to dispel the myth that whistleblower rewards are only an ‘American thing,’” Kohn said, pointing to a chart of all the whistleblower tips submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Whistleblowers from South Africa had submitted the most tips (119 between 2011 and 2021). Other countries in the region, though, have comparatively very low tips, likely because public awareness about these programs is not widespread.
Part of the mission of the National Whistleblower Center (NWC), where Kohn serves as Chairman of the Board, is to educate the public about the existence of these laws. Kohn provided each participant with a copy of his book, Rules for Whistleblowers, encouraging them to use it to share the information with their networks and explaining the steps to build vital whistleblower protection programs domestically.
“Even without good whistleblower laws in most places, the tips from whistleblowers is the number one source of fraud detection across all regions of the world,” said Kohn. “Imagine what could happen if we started fully utilizing these proven best-practice laws.”
