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Attorney General Eric Holder is urging Congress to increase the amount of cash rewards federal prosecutors can pay Wall Street whistleblowers. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) | Alex Wong via Getty Images

Attorney General Eric Holder is urging Congress to increase the amount of cash rewards federal prosecutors can pay whistleblowers that turn over evidence of white-collar crime.

"[T]he buck needs to stop somewhere where corporate misconduct is concerned," Holder said in remarks prepared for a speech Wednesday at the New York University School of Law. "[W]e need not tolerate a system that permits top executives to enjoy all of the rewards of excessively risky activity while bearing none of the responsibility."

As the Justice Department furthers its ongoing investigations into potentially illegal conduct by financial firms, insider information from Wall Street executives has served as a critical factor in equipping prosecutors with the often elusive "smoking gun" evidence needed to ensure a conviction, Holder said in excerpts of the speech provided by the Justice Department.

But under current law, provisions in the 1989 Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) cap the amount a whistleblower can receive for providing evidence of financial fraud at $1.6 million, "a paltry sum" for Wall Street executives, Holder said.

In contrast, he argued, the federal False Claims Act, which combats fraud against government programs, allows citizens to receive as much as one-third of any damages recovered by the government.

For federal prosecutors to gain access to the evidence needed to bring enforcement actions against financial fraud, Holder said, FIRREA must be modified to provide greater financial incentives for executives risking their careers to provide insider information to investigators.

In recent years, however, the Justice Department has faced growing criticism over its failure to bring criminal charges against high-level individuals and major banks in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.

Justice Department officials, including Holder, have responded by saying that some banks are just too big to prosecute, and that doing so would upset the global financial system.

"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy," Holder said during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2013. "And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."

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Eric Holder Calls For Bigger Rewards For Wall Street ...

United States Attorney General Eric Holder holds a news conference announcing updates in the Justice Department's investigation in the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in Washington September 4 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

Following the weeks of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri that followed the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday that he is launching a program to combat distrust and hostility between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

"As we saw all too clearly last month as the eyes of the nation turned toward Ferguson, Missouri, whenever discord, mistrust and rolling tensions are allowed to fester just under the surface, interactions between law enforcement and local residents are more likely to escalate into confrontation, unrest and even violence," Holder said.

As a law enforcement leader, he said he believes he has an "essential obligation" to "ensure fairness, eliminate bias, and build community engagement."

The program, called the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, will train law enforcement and communities on bias reduction and procedural fairness, according to the Justice Department, and will begin at five pilot sites around the country. It is being funded through a $4.75 million grant.

The program will also establish a clearinghouse for information, research and technical assistance on the subject available to law enforcement, community leaders and people involved with the criminal justice system.

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Attorney General Eric Holder talks with residents of Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown sparked clash...

The grant was awarded to a group of national law enforcement experts from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Yale Law School, the Center for Policing equity at the University of California Los Angeles and the Urban Institute. A board of advisers will be comprised of national leaders from law enforcement, academia, faith-based groups, community stakeholders and civil rights advocates.

"What I saw in Ferguson confirmed for me that the need for such an effort was pretty clear," Holder told the Associated Press Tuesday when he announced the initiative.

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After Ferguson, Eric Holder looks to better police-community relations

En Banc Court 09-71491 Roberto Maldonado v. Eric Holder, Jr.
A citizen of Mexico petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals #39; denial of his application for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture.

By: 9thcirc

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En Banc Court 09-71491 Roberto Maldonado v. Eric Holder, Jr. - Video

FBI Targets Minority Communities in Mortgage Fraud Investigations
Former bank regulator Bill Black says Attorney General Eric Holder must stop targeting minorities and instead focus on the mortgage fraud of banksters.

By: TheRealNews

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FBI Targets Minority Communities in Mortgage Fraud Investigations - Video

Attorney General Eric Holder wants to encourage whistleblowers to come forward about financial fraud.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)

In a speech slated for delivery Wednesday in New York, Holder will ask Congress to change a federal law to increase the financial reward paid to anyone who provides evidence of financial fraud to the government.

He'll also announce plans to increase the number of FBI agents with forensic accounting experience who are focused on investigating white collar crime, according to a Justice Department official.

In his five-plus years leading the Justice Department, Holder has faced criticism about how the department has handled corporate crime investigations and its failure to bring charges against top bankers tied to the financial crisis. The department struggled to find proof of criminal wrongdoing, but in recent years has dusted off a civil law that it is using to extract multi-billion dollar settlements from some of the nation's biggest banks for their shoddy mortgage securities sales practices.

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It's that law, known as the Financial Institutions Recovery and Reform Act, that Holder hopes to change to award bigger sums to whistleblowers in exchange for helping prosecutors bring white collar crime cases. The law currently caps whistleblower awards at $1.6 million, but Holder believes that's not enough to make a Wall Street banker risk his lucrative career to come forward.

The attorney general wants to bring the law in line with another whistleblower law, the False Claims Act, which encourages whistleblowers to report fraud against government programs. In those cases, whistleblowers can win awards worth up to 30% of the prosecutor's final settlement, sometimes totaling millions of dollars.

Holder hopes these steps will help the Justice Department pursue cases against bankers and executives, and not just against the corporations.

Related: UBS whistleblower nets $104 million reward

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Holder: Pay Wall Street whistleblowers more