DOJ Pays First Whistleblower Award Under Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program

The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division and United States Postal Service recently announced their award of $1 million to a whistleblower for providing information leading to the $3.28 million criminal antitrust fine of a company for engaging in a conspiracy to rig bids for used cars on an online auction. The reward is the first whistleblower payment made in connection with the Whistleblower Rewards Program announced by the Antitrust Division and USPS in May 2025.

The program—which creates a bounty for persons who report criminal antitrust violations—has led to a “frenzy” of new reports of antitrust violations in the last eight months according to Omed Assefi, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement in the Antitrust Division. The quick results achieved by the Whistleblower Rewards Program highlight the importance of effective antitrust compliance.

WHISTLEBLOWER REWARDS PROGRAM

In May 2025, the DOJ, the Postal Service Office of the Inspector General, and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS and, collectively, the Parties) signed a joint memorandum of understanding establishing the Whistleblower Rewards Program to reward whistleblowers for providing information about criminal violations of the Sherman Act and other federal criminal violations relating to such criminal antitrust violations, including those committed to (1) effectuate, facilitate, or conceal violations of the Sherman Act; (2) target or affect federal, state, or local public procurement; and (3) target or affect federal competition investigations or proceedings.

Because the Program relies on the authority of the Postal Service to pay rewards to whistleblowers, the whistleblower must “reasonably articulate[] violations of law affecting the Postal Service, its revenues, or property.” Under the terms of the Program, whistleblowers who provide evidence leading to the imposition of a criminal fine in excess of $1 million will be paid a bounty of between 15% and 30% of the fine amount.

The Program was designed to provide incentives for whistleblowers to identify antitrust violations that might otherwise go undetected. It is a new—and powerful—supplement to the Antitrust Division’s leniency program, which seeks to incentivize self-reporting of criminal antitrust violations by providing the first company to self-report with a guarantee of no criminal fines or other direct criminal enforcement against the company. The leniency program—which for decades was the primary generator of criminal antitrust enforcement actions—has in recent years produced fewer large-scale antitrust enforcement actions.

THE FIRST WHISTLEBLOWER REWARD

According to the DOJ, the Parties paid the Program’s first reward to a whistleblower whose information “led to the identification and dismantlement” of a criminal fraud and antitrust conspiracy to artificially raise the prices of used cars in the United States.

Between November 2020 and February 2022, according to the DOJ, “Company A” conspired with “Company B” to rig bids for used vehicles sold on Company A’s auction platform. More specifically, Companies A and B shared bidding information and agreed to maximum bids for certain used cars. Further, Company A employees provided access and user permissions to Company B to view confidential bidding information.

During the course of the alleged conspiracy, various documents were sent via U.S. Mail to effectuate the scheme. Once Companies A and B purchased these bid-rigged vehicles, they maintained a shared inventory from which they sold those vehicles for higher prices and pooled and split the profits from those sales. EBLOCK, the target of the DOJ’s investigation and complaint, violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act because it failed to stop the bid-rigging scheme after its acquisition of Company A in November 2020, according to the DOJ.

In connection with the deferred prosecution agreement, EBLOCK paid a criminal fine of $3.28 million, and the Parties paid out the maximum reward of 30%—$1 million—to the whistleblower.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE FIRST REWARD

The Parties’ inaugural award signals that the Program will apply to any criminal antitrust conspiracy where an actor sends documents via the U.S. Mail. Here, according to the Parties, the USPS suffered an “identifiable harm” because “the defendant used the U.S. Mail to send documentation related to the scheme.” Accordingly, the nexus requirement will be met by any use of the U.S. Mail to effectuate a criminal antitrust violation.

In a joint press release with the DOJ, Chief Postal Inspector of USPIS Gary Barksdale appeared to confirm this interpretation, stating that whistleblowers who provide “actionable intelligence about antitrust and related competition crimes with a connection to the U.S. Mail” may be eligible for an award. Furthermore, Daniel Glad, Acting Director of Criminal Enforcement of the Antitrust Division, also highlighted that the Program offers the opportunity for whistleblowers to receive an award “even if the criminal activity has already ended.”

LOOKING AHEAD

The Parties have signaled that they are committed to using the Program as a tool against criminal antitrust activity. According to Deputy AAG Omeed Assefi, “[w]histleblowers serve as the Justice System’s greatest disinfectant against criminal antitrust conspiracies.” Moreover, the DOJ recognized that this award “underscores the indispensable role whistleblowers will continue to play in the Division’s criminal enforcement program.”

The potential increased use of antitrust whistleblowers may have far-reaching consequences for US companies. Deputy AAG Assefi has stated that the “race is faster now” to receive leniency from the DOJ for self-reporting antitrust violations since “employees and their attorneys are incentivized to blow the whistle and beat their companies to the Division’s doorstep.”

The DOJ’s increased reliance on whistleblowers to identify potential antitrust violations highlights that effective antitrust compliance programs remain paramount.

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