The new program, led by Bessent, offers whistleblowers a range of 10 to 30 percent of recovered funds to expose large-scale fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations.
Payments to whistleblowers would be funded by penalties collected under the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act from actions brought by Treasury and the Justice Department.
According to Bessent, financial institutions filed 20 percent more suspicious activity reports related to health care in 2025 than in 2024 after Trump vowed to tackle fraud. But that number likely represents only a small fraction of the illicit activity connected to health care fraud in the country.
The new program aligns with Trump's broader crackdown on fraud nationwide.
Trump recently tasked Vice President JD Vance with leading a new, anti-fraud task force to combat fraud in federal benefit programs, alongside Andrew Ferguson, head of the Federal Trade Commission.
The task force's first meeting was held last week. Vance said during the meeting that fraudsters have stolen critical services that the American people rely on and claimed that longtime anti-fraud protections were “turned off” by the previous administration.
Fraud emerged as a key focus of the Trump administration following allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis. But Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had argued the state had taken steps to combat fraud, claiming the Trump administration has launched a “campaign of retribution” to weaponize the federal government to punish blue states.
The Trump administration nonetheless temporarily halted some Medicaid funding to Minnesota over concerns as part of its aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds.