On January 29, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division announced the first payment made under its Whistleblower Rewards Program. The whistleblower received a reward of $1 million for providing information that led to a company agreeing to pay a $3.28 million criminal fine to resolve antitrust and fraud charges.
The Whistleblower Rewards program, which was announced in July 2025, is a partnership between the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG). The program was designed to incentivize individuals to report antitrust crimes in exchange for monetary rewards, up to 30 percent of recovered criminal fines if the conditions outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding between the DOJ, USPS, and USPS OIG are satisfied. In particular, individuals must voluntarily provide original, credible, high-value information about illegal agreements to collude that ultimately results in prosecution of an eligible crime that affects the USPS.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi said recently that the Antitrust Division has seen a “frenzy” of individuals come forward with information, and that the Division has been “qualifying whistleblowers for the last six months.”1With the announcement of this $1 million reward, Acting Assistant Attorney General Assefi said that he expects even more applications to the Whistleblower Rewards Program and hinted that additional announcement of rewards are coming in the next couple of months.
Because the Whistleblower Rewards program increases the risk for companies that employees or former employees will report suspected collusion to the DOJ, it is important that companies have an effective antitrust compliance program in place to prevent, detect, and remediate misconduct. For more information or advice, please contact any member of Wilson Sonsini’s Antitrust and Competition practice.
[1] Vasant, MLex, “US DOJ witnessing ‘frenzy’ as people seek whistleblower reward, Assefi says” (Jan. 30, 2026), https://content.mlex.com/#/content/1710525/us-doj-witnessing-frenzy-as-people-seek-whistleblower-reward-assefi-says.
