WASHINGTON, Feb 13 - The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday announced a new website designed to accept whistleblower tips about fraud, money laundering and sanctions violations. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department will pay rewards to whistleblowers when a tip results in a successful enforcement action.
Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Bessent described the initiative as a tool to uncover wasteful or illicit activity. He said:
"It’s going to be a great way to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse," Bessent told CNBC’s "Squawk Box." "We’re setting up a website and we will be giving rewards up to 10% to 30% of the fines that we levy."
The announcement comes against the backdrop of a controversy in Minnesota involving federal funds used by nonprofit groups that deliver childcare and other social services. The Trump administration has cited allegations of fraud dating back to 2020 by some of those organizations and has publicly criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the state's Somali immigrant community as part of its rationale for stepping up enforcement.
Bessent visited Minnesota last month to roll out a package of measures intended to strengthen fraud detection and enforcement. Those measures include heightened scrutiny of money services businesses, improved reporting mechanisms, and new alerting procedures for financial institutions.
In addition to Treasury's actions, the Internal Revenue Service will create a dedicated fraud task force aimed at identifying and addressing the improper use of funds by organizations classified as 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entities.
Treasury said that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) Office of the Whistleblower will process tips involving violations and conspiracies tied to the Bank Secrecy Act, U.S. sanctions programs, and "several other laws critical to safeguarding the U.S. financial system and national security."
The new portal and related steps form part of a broader enforcement push focused on rooting out misuse of federal resources and strengthening the pipeline for reporting suspicious activity to regulators and law enforcement.
Alongside these policy moves, a financial services platform promoted performance claims about AI-driven portfolio selections, noting that two out of three global portfolios were outperforming their benchmarks year to date and that 88% of portfolios were in positive territory. The platform highlighted a flagship strategy that it said doubled the S&P 500 within 18 months and named specific winners. The platform encouraged investors to consider its stock-picking tools.