FinCEN Targets Health-Care Benefit Fraud, Proposes Whistleblower Rewards

FinCEN issues an advisory warning financial institutions to watch for schemes exploiting government health care benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid, detailing how fraud rings and transnational criminal organizations file false claims and launder funds through banks and international networks; the agency also unveiled a proposed rule to compensate whistleblowers with 10–30% of penalties from qualifying actions, funded by penalties under the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as part of a broader effort to protect federal payments.