Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday officially launched a cash reward program through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, offering Americans between 10 and 30 percent of fines collected from fraud convictions — putting real money on the table in the administration’s push to recover billions in stolen taxpayer dollars.
The program targets Medicare and Medicaid fraud, money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act violations, and sanctions evasion. To qualify, a tip must lead to an enforcement action resulting in more than $1 million in penalties. Payouts come directly from fines collected — not from the general fund. Treasury published a formal press release on the launch, and the tip portal is live at fincen.gov/whistleblower. The proposed rule establishing the program was submitted to the Federal Register on Monday.
“As promised, Treasury will reward whistleblowers who provide timely, actionable information on fraud, sanctions violations, and other significant illicit finance activity,” Bessent said in the official announcement. The full press release is available at home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0394.
Bessent framed the rollout in blunt terms, telling Fox News it was modeled on the same financial intelligence approach Treasury used against the mafia and the cartels. The program mirrors the existing IRS whistleblower structure — same basic incentive architecture, extended to a broader class of financial crimes and benefits fraud.
The announcement follows a high-profile fraud investigation in Minnesota, where networks allegedly defrauded federal welfare programs of at least $9 billion since 2018 through shell clinics, phantom food sites, and ghost housing services — with some funds allegedly routed to terror networks overseas. Bessent visited Minneapolis in January, calling it ground zero for what he described as industrial-scale fraud. As of Monday, Treasury had already logged more than 700 tips, with multiple investigations now active. Bessent also put banks on notice, instructing financial institutions to watch for sophisticated fraud rings recruiting foreign nationals to exploit federal social programs.
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What Vermont Already Has
Vermont is not without tools. The Vermont False Claims Act, enacted in 2015, allows private citizens to file qui tam lawsuits — legal actions brought on behalf of the state against entities that defraud it. A successful whistleblower stands to collect between 15 and 25 percent of the amount recovered if the Attorney General intervenes, or between 25 and 30 percent if the AG declines and the relator pursues it independently. On paper, Vermont’s payout range is comparable to what Bessent activated at the federal level.
The State Auditor’s office also maintains a fraud reporting portal covering benefits programs including 3SquaresVT, Reach-Up welfare, Medicaid, workers’ compensation, and vendor fraud against state agencies. Anonymous tips are accepted. The Auditor can be reached at 1-802-828-2281, and the reporting page is at.
Where Vermont Falls Short
The gap isn’t in the law. It’s in friction.
Vermont’s False Claims Act requires a citizen to become a legal plaintiff. That means retaining an attorney, filing a sealed complaint, and potentially waiting years before any recovery materializes. The qui tam process was built for insiders with documented evidence — employees, contractors, billing specialists with paper trails. It was not built for a neighbor who notices a state-reimbursed facility operating out of an empty storefront.
The State Auditor’s tip line, meanwhile, carries no financial reward and no public-facing feedback mechanism to confirm tips are being acted on.
Compare that to Treasury’s new model: a website, a tip submission, and a percentage of whatever gets collected — no lawyer required to get the process started.
How Vermont Could Modernize
Several changes to Vermont statute or practice could close that gap considerably.
A tiered administrative reward program — modeled on the IRS whistleblower structure — would allow the Attorney General or the Department of Vermont Health Access, which administers Medicaid, to pay informant rewards out of recovered funds without requiring the tipster to initiate litigation. The Legislature could authorize this through amendment to Title 32 of Vermont Statutes.
Vermont could also broaden qui tam eligibility to explicitly include federally funded programs administered by the state — Medicaid, 3SquaresVT, housing assistance — aligning Vermont’s reach with the federal False Claims Act and ensuring that fraud against those programs can be pursued through state courts as well.
Transparency requirements for licensed providers receiving state or federal reimbursement would also help surface fraud earlier. Bessent credited Minnesota’s public disclosure rules for making it possible to cross-reference reimbursement data against physical addresses — how phantom facilities get caught. Vermont’s equivalent reimbursement data is not readily searchable by the public.
Finally, the State Auditor’s tip portal could add a basic status-tracking function — even a simple acknowledgment that a report is under review, referred, or closed. Without any feedback loop, the current system gives tipsters no reason to follow through.
Vermont’s False Claims Act is a real statute with real teeth. The reward percentages are competitive. What the state lacks is a low-friction on-ramp for citizens who know something and want to act on it — without a retainer check and a court filing standing in the way.
Dave Soulia | FYIVT
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