“People will make millions of dollars by turning others in,” Trump said.
Right in time for the midterm elections, the Fraudster in Chief rolled out a new program, The Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP), that offers payments to tipsters who help uncover fraud in government programs. If anyone should know about fraud it would be Trump since a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a New York.
WHIP will pay tipsters a 1% “commission” on the amount of money recovered, with “no limit” on how much someone can collect. A White House official earlier said that individuals reporting fraud can collect up to $30,000, and that the entire incentive program totaled $25 million.
But like everything Trump touches, his new bigly, taxpayer funded giveaway hit a few snags. Several people have reported Trump for fraud for numerous reasons, mainly because he has greatly enriched himself and his family during his second term in office.
The Fraudster in Chief also appointed himself as the arbitrator of this program who ultimately decide who gets this latest payout/bribe.
“I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “In other words, I’ll determine whether or not the person is deserving, and I’ll determine, and I will be very generous.”
Whistle-blowers already receive hundreds of millions of dollars annually for reporting fraud through existing legal avenues, including filing complaints under the False Claims Act and whistle-blower programs at the I.R.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Payouts under such programs are typically determined by a commission or by a federal court, not the president.