How to Make Millions as a Professional Whistleblower

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Did you know that there’s a provision in US law that encourages anyone to blow the whistle on financial fraud? Here’s the kicker: If their tips lead to the government taking action, they could potentially take home a percentage of the funds collected. In this gripping story from GQ’s September issue, the writer Gordy Megroz meets Richard Overum, a professional whistleblower who has made a career—and a fortune—out of that law. —Raymond Ang, associate director, editorial operations

How To Make Millions As a Professional Whistleblower

By Gordy Megroz

It’s a Saturday in a well-appointed room in a luxury hotel in a major American city and a man named Richard Overum has just escorted me from the lobby to brief me on my new identity. My directive: Embody a high roller. A man capable of signing a check for millions of dollars at a moment’s notice. And, most important, a man looking to make an investment. I need to look perfect, Overum explains. Because tonight, I’ll be shadowing him on a sting.

Richard Overum is not a member of law enforcement or a government official. He’s something else: a rarefied practitioner in a line of work he’s all but created for himself. He hunts businesspeople he suspects are breaking the law—a job that by virtue of oft-overlooked sections of federal law can end up paying remarkably well. Tucked into the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal and the economic calamity of the late aughts, are provisions meant to encourage people who spot signs of potential financial wrongdoing to come to the government with information. The incentive? If the agencies take enforcement action based on a tip resulting in sanctions in excess of $1 million, the law says, one or more whistleblowers can earn an award equal to 10 to 30 percent of what’s collected.

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