President Donald Trump has unveiled a reward program that would pay Americans 1% of any fraud they report that is recovered.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on the 20th that people who go to fraud.gov and report fraudulent activity can receive 1% of the amount recovered as a fee, according to Forbes.
"Whether it's $10 billion or $200 billion or $400 billion, we give that person a 1% fee," Trump said, adding that claimants would have to prove they were the one who filed the report. He said he would personally arbitrate if two people reported the same case and fought over the reward. Reporters, too, could collect the 1% fee, he added.
Government websites, however, lay out specific conditions and limits. The federal fraud reporting page states that tipsters who include their contact information and whose report leads to criminal charges can receive up to $30,000. A Justice Department site linked from that page for details on payments says rewards of $10,000 to $30,000 go to people who provide "actionable tips" that lead to prosecution.
The Justice Department notes that a tipster "may be eligible for a larger award" if the information leads to a substantial fine or forfeiture. Trump's 1% fee announced that day appears to refer to such cases.
Trump also pressed Attorney General Todd Blanche that day to investigate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. He was pointing to a large fraud case in Minnesota in which a federal child nutrition program was exploited at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a case in which three people were convicted. Walz has not been convicted in connection with the case but has acknowledged that the state government should have acted sooner.
Trump set up a fraud-fighting task force in March. The group has claimed it uncovered $260 billion in fraud and blocked $72 billion in fraud targeting the federal government. Some critics have countered that Trump's own expansion of his family business and the profits he has drawn from the presidency amount to a form of fraud.