Whistleblower Award Determination, Whistleblower Award Request No. 2021-0001 (Hyundai RQ17-004 and Kia RQ17-003)

Redacted NHTSA order determining whistleblower award request No. 2021-0001 (10 pp., undated in the text layer): statutory framework (10-30 percent of collected sanctions over $1 million, discretion); Requestor One, a former Hyundai Motor Company employee in South Korea, first came to NHTSA in August 2016; investigations RQ17-003/004 opened 18 May 2017; consent orders of 23 Nov 2020 with Non-Deferred ($54m Hyundai, $27m Kia, paid January 2021), Abeyance ($46m, $27m) and Performance Obligation ($40m, $16m) amounts, $210 million in total; award of $24,300,000 = 30 percent of the $81 million collected, plus 30 percent of any Performance Obligation Amount collected later, decision on Abeyance Amounts reserved; the whistleblower's request for $41.1 million (30 percent of $137 million, about 51 percent of the amount collected) rejected; NHTSA's reading that at least 70 percent of penalties go to the Highway Trust Fund. The case was already recorded (c-ae2e194951) but without sanctions_amount: the order gives $81 million collected (correction suggested, not a new case row). Added collections and ordered sanctions by component (parts add to 81 and 210 million), four restated rules and two events. The order itself is anonymous ("Requestor One"); the existing case row names the whistleblower from other sources (he went public).