White-Collar Justice Program

The prosecution of white-collar crime is an essential focus of the United States Attorney’s for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In all of its forms, financial fraud, corruption, and abuse of power inflict real and lasting harms on the citizens and businesses in our district. These crimes rob victims of their personal livelihood, the government programs they depend on, and their trust in the economic and public institutions that serve our communities.

In September 2025, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania implemented the White-Collar Justice Program to strengthen its white-collar enforcement framework. Although the office has a longstanding tradition of pursuing high-impact criminal and civil white-collar cases, we have devised new programs to empower Assistant United States Attorneys to aggressively pursue complex investigations and significant new matters on their own initiative, all while enhancing and diversifying existing referral networks beyond traditional law enforcement sources. By fostering self-agency and autonomy for prosecutors to identify and investigate wrongdoing, the office has embraced an aggressive, nimbler model for optimizing white-collar enforcement.

In addition to energizing a culture of proactive target selection, the office has also developed discrete policies and programs to improve our efforts to tackle white-collar crime.

Corporate Transparency Initiative

To broaden the pipeline of high-quality white-collar referrals, our office launched the Corporate Transparency Initiative in September 2025. The program promotes a culture of integrity, ethics, and accountability in the corporate sector while serving as a strategic enforcement tool to deter fraud, corruption, and abuse of power. The Corporate Transparency Initiative includes external outreach to stakeholders and incentivizes companies to voluntarily self-disclose potential criminal conduct to our office. In return, eligible disclosures may provide substantial benefits, including:

1. Primary Benefit: For a qualifying voluntary-self-disclosure, our office will not seek a criminal guilty plea against the entity making the disclosure and for the conduct subject to the disclosure.
2. Secondary Benefit: Our office will not impose a criminal penalty that is more than 50% below the low end of the fine range set forth in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. In some cases, our office will not seek a criminal penalty at all.[1]

Every voluntary self-disclosure will undergo a careful and individualized assessment to determine whether it qualifies as a voluntary self-disclosure under the program. Our office will decide in its sole discretion whether a disclosure constitutes a voluntary self-disclosure under the program based on the following criteria:

1. Voluntary. Disclosure must be made voluntarily by the company. A disclosure will not qualify where there is a preexisting obligation to disclose, such as pursuant to regulation, contract, or prior resolution.
2. Timely. A disclosure must also be made: (a) prior to an imminent threat of disclosure or government investigation; (b) prior to the misconduct being publicly disclosed or otherwise known to the government; and (c) within a reasonably prompt time after the company becoming aware of the misconduct, with the burden being on the company to demonstrate timeliness.
3. Thorough. The disclosure must include all relevant facts concerning the misconduct that are known to the company at the time of the disclosure.

Full program details are available here.

As to disclosures that may implicate the civil liability under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729, et seq., this Office follows the Department’s Guidelines for Taking Disclosure, Cooperation, and Remediation into Account in False Claims Act Matters under the Justice Manual, 4-4.112.

Submissions to our office must be submitted via usapae.vsd@usdoj.gov. The date of receipt by this email account will be considered the official date of the self-disclosure. Companies and their legal counsel are encouraged to reach out to relevant supervisors in this office on an informal basis in advance of a voluntary self-disclosure.

Inquiries regarding the program should be directed to Patrick J. Murray, Chief of the Economic Crimes Section, or Anthony Scicchitano, Chief of the Healthcare Fraud Section, at 215-861-8200. Inquiries regarding voluntary disclosures that implicate civil liability under the False Claims Act should be directed to Civil Chief Gregory B. David or Deputy Civil Chief Charlene Keller Fullmer.

Whistleblower Awards Program

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania proudly participates in the DOJ’s Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program, a critical program to uncover and prosecute corporate crime. Under this pilot program, implemented by the DOJ’s Criminal Division,[2] an individual whistleblower (not a corporation) who provides original and truthful information about corporate misconduct that results in a successful forfeiture may be eligible for a monetary award. In September 2025, our office became a principal participant in the Whistleblower Awards Program, recognizing its value in surfacing and generating credible allegations of corporate and individual crime.

Eligible misconduct may include, but is not limited to: (1) certain crimes by financial institutions; (2) foreign corruption involving misconduct; (3) domestic corruption involving misconduct; (4) health care fraud schemes involving private insurance plans; (5) fraud against the United States in connection with federal funds contracting or federal programs (not involving health care); (6) violations related to trade, tariff, and customs fraud; (7) violations related to federal immigration law; and (8) violations related to sanctions offenses, material support of terrorism, or cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

If the information a whistleblower submits results in a successful prosecution that includes criminal or civil forfeiture, the whistleblower may be eligible to receive a monetary award of a percentage of the forfeited assets, depending on considerations set out in the program guidance. All submissions are handled with the utmost confidentiality as permitted by law.

If you have information to report, particularly as it relates to conduct within the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, you should contact Patrick J. Murray, Chief of the Economic Crimes Section, or Anthony Scicchitano, Chief of the Healthcare Fraud Section, at 215-861-8200. Our office stands ready to help individuals and their counsel navigate the submission process and other requirements of the Whistleblower Awards Program.

Government Fraud Alliance

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has long been recognized as a national leader in pursuing Affirmative Civil Enforcement (“ACE”) actions, including successfully recovering billions under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and its whistleblower provisions. In September 2025, our office formally instituted the Government Fraud Alliance to formalize our “whole of government” approach to white-collar enforcement, ensuring that our criminal and civil attorneys and investigators work closely with one another and federal agency partners to maximize fraud enforcement efforts.

Under this initiative, every qui tam filing or whistleblower complaint received under the FCA is immediately and jointly reviewed by teams of Assistant United States Attorneys from both the Criminal and Civil Divisions as well as our federal law enforcement partners. From the outset of an investigation and as appropriate under the law, these teams will coordinate and combine resources—communicating on the investigation, employing different investigating strategies to enhance information sharing, and aiming to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the United States’ response to allegations of fraud. This coordinated approach ensures that any allegation of fraud against the United States is thoroughly examined from all enforcement angles and is subject to the full scope of available criminal and civil sanctions.

Together, these initiatives reflect our office’s commitment to engage proactively with corporations, employees, and industry stakeholders. By fostering transparency, encouraging disclosure, and strengthening partnerships, we better protect markets, safeguard taxpayer dollars, and promote accountability across the sectors that impact our communities.