In Alabama and across the nation, workers who come forward to report the illegal schemes perpetrated by their employers are protected from job loss or retaliation for reporting.

By filing claims against their employers on the government's behalf, whistleblowers (as they are known as) may receive a financial reward if the government recovers funds that it otherwise wouldn't have without the non-public information the whistleblower provided.

With recent mergers, acquisitions, and layoffs among big banks on Wall Street, it's possible that whistleblower reports could increase.

Contraction by big banks

Some large banks in recent years have been undergoing restructuring which has resulted in thousands of employees without a job. This could result in a different calculus by the laid-off employees and an increased willingness to file whistleblower claims. Some of the types of schemes for which big banks and hedge funds could face complaints include the following:

• Money laundering
• Investment adviser fraud
• Ponzi schemes
• Fraudulent offerings
• Securities fraud
• Insider trading
• Accounting fraud
• Market manipulation

Potential outcomes

The False Claims Act is a federal law that provides incentives to employees for reporting non-public information about their employers' fraud schemes against the government and allows employees to file complaints on the government's behalf.

When the government can recover funds based on the information provided by the employees, the whistleblowers can receive awards ranging from 10% to 30% of what the government recovers.

The penalties employers can face for wrongdoing include civil penalties ranging up to $23,607 per violation. Since these schemes tend to be massive in scope, the penalties companies can face often range into hundreds of millions of dollars, since each violation or fraudulent claim is subject to a separate penalty.