Investing

SEC Continues to Pay Whistleblowers

Chris Lange

Published: May 23, 2016 11:20 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 7:42 am

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced it will jointly award more than $450,000 to two individuals for a tip that led the agency to open a corporate accounting investigation and for their assistance once the investigation was underway.

The whistleblower award is the third announced by the SEC in the past couple of weeks, bringing the past two week’s payouts to $10 million.

By law, the agency protects the confidentiality of whistleblowers and does not disclose information that might directly or indirectly reveal a whistleblower’s identity.

For some background on the program: it has now awarded more than $68 million to 31 whistleblowers since the program’s inception in 2011. Whistleblowers may be eligible for an award when they voluntarily provide the SEC with unique and useful information that leads to a successful enforcement action. Whistleblower awards can range from 10% to 30% of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million. All payments are made out of an investor protection fund established by Congress that is financed through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators. No money has been taken or withheld from harmed investors to pay whistleblower awards.

Sean X. McKessy, chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, commented:

The recent flurry of awards reflects the high-quality nature of the tips the SEC is receiving as public awareness of the whistleblower program grows. These two individuals not only submitted valuable tips to help open our investigation but also provided valuable assistance as we proceeded, showing that our program particularly rewards those eager to continue helping us throughout the process of bringing an enforcement action.