Trump says he will referee the new fraud-tip rewards. The Justice Department’s rules say it decides alone.

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he would personally settle disputes over who gets paid under the government’s new fraud tip program. “I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “It’ll be a binding arbitration.”

The program’s rules, published the same day by the Justice Department, say something different. Under the terms and conditions of what the department formally calls the National Fraud Enforcement Division Criminal Tip Rewards Pilot Program, every award is made “in its sole discretion” by the Justice Department, and the department’s reward determination is “entirely discretionary” and “neither appealable nor subject to judicial review.” The rules make no mention of a role for the president.

The gap is one of several between what was said at Tuesday’s event, two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and what the government has put in writing. Trump described payments as a 1% commission on the fraud a tip helps uncover. The written terms instead set a flat reward of $10,000 to $30,000, paid when criminal charges are filed, and say nothing about a percentage. An Inquisitor review of the program documents and of the government’s existing whistleblower programs shows what the new fund can and cannot do.

What the Justice Department published

The department’s announcement calls the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, or WHIP, “the first ever whistleblower rewards program that pays an up-front award for tips leading to criminal charges.” The Treasury Department is committing $25 million to it, the release says. Tips go through an intake form at america.gov/fraud, and the department’s program page lists the eligibility rules.

The legal footing is narrow. The terms cite 28 U.S.C. § 530C(b)(1)(L), a general provision that lets the Justice Department pay rewards “pursuant to public advertisements for assistance to the Department” under procedures the attorney general sets. Unlike the whistleblower provisions in the False Claims Act or the securities laws, WHIP was not created by a new act of Congress, and the terms say the pilot runs for “an initial three-year term.” An endnote adds that the memo “does not create or confer any privileges, benefits, or rights” that anyone can enforce.

The rewards are limited to two areas: federal health care offenses, and fraud on programs run by the departments of Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Veterans Affairs and War, and by the Small Business Administration. The department says it will give priority to tips about hospice, home health care, day care and “special services” fraud, which the terms describe as including autism care. Fraud first committed against a state or local program qualifies as long as some of the loss is ultimately borne by a federal program.

Who can collect is also limited. A tipster must be an individual, not a company. Current and former Justice Department and law enforcement employees and contractors, and their close relatives, are excluded, as are foreign officials and anyone who “meaningfully participated” in the scheme, although a “minimal participant” can still qualify. The information must be “original,” meaning it comes from the tipster’s own knowledge or analysis, is not public and was not already known to the department. Information “contained entirely” in a court filing, a government audit or “the news media” does not count unless the tipster was its source.

No reward is paid until an indictment, information or criminal complaint has been filed and unsealed, unless the department decides otherwise. A tipster can earn one award per distinct tip, can submit anonymously only through a lawyer and must be identified before any payment. The department may permanently bar anyone who files three or more frivolous or fraudulent submissions, and false statements can be prosecuted.

The Shirley check

The White House used the event to present a $10,000 check to Nick Shirley, the 24-year-old conservative YouTuber whose December 2025 video alleged that Minnesota day care centers were collecting public money without providing care. CBS News and the Deseret News reported that Trump handed Shirley the check in the Oval Office, while the AP reported that a check was not given to Shirley in the presence of journalists.

CBS News reported at the time of Shirley’s video that state records showed all but two of the centers had active licenses and had been visited by regulators in the prior six months, with dozens of citations for safety and other violations but no recorded evidence of fraud as of Dec. 30, 2025. One center in the video has since closed, and a woman who appeared in one of the videos, Fahima Mahamud, pleaded guilty in July to wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to the AP, citing the Justice Department.

The published terms do not say whether the check to Shirley was paid under WHIP, which began Tuesday, or from some other source, and they do not explain how a reward for a widely viewed public video squares with the rule against information drawn from the news media.

How it compares

The new program is small next to the government’s existing whistleblower systems, which pay a share of what the government actually collects. Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers who file suit on the government’s behalf typically receive 15% to 30% of the recovery. The Justice Department reported in January that settlements and judgments under the act exceeded $6.8 billion in fiscal 2025, a record, that whistleblowers filed 1,297 such suits, also a record, and that suits brought by whistleblowers produced more than $5.3 billion. More than $5.7 billion of the total involved the health care industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s program, created by the Dodd-Frank Act, pays 10% to 30% of sanctions above $1 million. In fiscal 2025 the commission received about 27,000 tips and awarded more than $60 million to 48 individual whistleblowers, according to its annual report to Congress. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network began accepting tips on fraud, money laundering and sanctions violations this year through its whistleblower program.

The arithmetic of the $25 million fund is simple. Paid out entirely at the $30,000 maximum, it would cover about 833 awards. At the $10,000 minimum, it would cover 2,500. Each award requires a criminal charge, so the fund’s real limit is how many new cases federal prosecutors bring from tips.

What WHIP adds is speed. The Justice Department says most government reward programs pay only after a case is fully resolved, including forfeiture and appeals, which can take years. WHIP pays at the charging stage and leaves tipsters eligible for larger awards later, including under the department’s Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program, if their information eventually leads to big penalties.

Where it fits

The program is the latest piece of the administration’s anti-fraud campaign. Trump created the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in March and put Vice President JD Vance in charge of it, the AP reported. The Justice Department announced its new National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7, and on Oct. 1 the division’s head, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, issued Directive 26-12, which told division leaders to design programs that “appropriately incentivize whistleblowers,” according to the department. The White House said last week that cabinet secretaries and agency heads had signed a Vance “pledge” on fraud, and its Fraud Ledger page promises a public tally of fraud the task force has identified.

“The president has said it must stop. It is stopping. And if you want to help us stop it, you get to share in the rewards,” Vance said at the event, according to the AP. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the department’s release that WHIP “offers everyone the opportunity to be part of the solution, help expose fraud, and be rewarded quickly for their efforts.” The White House posted video of the event.

Trump also said journalists could take part, the AP reported. The written terms do not address journalists specifically; they apply the same original-information and cooperation rules to everyone, including a duty to provide testimony and documents and, if asked, to work “in a proactive manner under the supervision of” federal agents.

The White House did not respond to the substance of a request for comment.

What to watch

Three questions will decide whether WHIP is a lasting tool or an election-season announcement. The first is who actually decides awards: the president’s description or the department’s written rules, which give the department sole discretion. The second is whether the Treasury money comes from an existing fund or needs new authority; neither the Justice Department’s release nor the terms identify the account. The third is disclosure. The terms promise confidentiality for tipsters but set no public reporting on how many tips arrive, how many awards are paid or to whom, unlike the SEC, which must report to Congress every year.

The Inquisitor sent requests for comment to the Justice Department, the White House, the Treasury Department, the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and the National Whistleblower Center on Wednesday afternoon, after this story was first published. Responses received are included above; this story will be updated with any others.

Update, Oct. 21, 2026: This story has been updated with the White House’s reply to a request for comment.

Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington. APK / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.