Awards are a key driver of the success of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower program to uncover financial misconduct, allowing the agency to rely on well-positioned industry insiders with high quality information about financial misconduct.

SEC rewards securities whistleblowers with 10% to 30% percent of the amount collected as a result of their information.

SEC track has issued whistleblower awards to more than 200 individuals for their whistleblower tips, with enforcement actions that have resulted in nearly $5 billion in financial remedies. By 2021 2 whistleblower awards pushed the total of SEC whistleblower rewards since 2012 over $1 billion emphasizing the important role that whistleblowers play in helping the SEC detect, investigate, and prosecute potential violations of the securities laws.

One SEC whistleblower award was for $4 million, for an SEC investigation already well underway.

The other was for $110 million the second largest SEC whistleblower award ever (the largest SEC whistleblower was issued last October for a $114 million award) and with credit to an individual who provided the SEC with a significant independent analysis that substantially advanced ongoing investigations by the SEC and another government agency. The whistleblower was awarded $40 million for assistance in an SEC action and approximately $70 million for a related enforcement action by the other agency.

The SEC whistleblower program was created by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, and the first SEC whistleblower award was issued two years later. The money for SEC whistleblower rewards comes from a special fund supported through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators.

The law offers SEC whistleblowers strong confidentiality safeguards along with protection from job retaliation and rewards.

Assistance that whistleblowers provide is crucial to the SEC’s ability to enforce the rules of the road for our capital markets. We provide assistance to whistleblowers who are aware of possible securities law violations and are thinking of becoming a whistleblower.

So contact DeToffol & Gittleman for a free, confidential review of your matter by experienced and successful SEC whistleblower attorneys.