The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has paid out its highest-ever awards for information which led to enforcement actions, with two whistleblowers sharing a nearly $50m (£35.5m) award and a third whistleblower receiving more than $33m (£23.5m)
This year’s awards tops the previous high of $30m (£21m) paid out by the US regulator in 2014.
The SEC has awarded more than $262m to 53 whistleblowers since issuing its first award in 2012. All payments are made out of an investor protection fund established by Congress that is financed entirely through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators.
Whistleblowers may be eligible for an award when they voluntarily provide the SEC with original, timely, and credible information that leads to a successful enforcement action. Payments range range from 10% to 30% of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1m.
Jane Norberg, chief of the SEC’s office of the whistleblower, said: ‘These awards demonstrate that whistleblowers can provide the SEC with incredibly significant information that enables us to pursue and remedy serious violations that might otherwise go unnoticed.
‘We hope that these awards encourage others with specific, high-quality information regarding securities laws violations to step forward and report it to the SEC.’
By law, the SEC protects the confidentiality of whistleblowers and does not disclose information that might directly or indirectly reveal a whistleblower’s identity, so it is not known which cases prompted the current payouts.
Report by Pat Sweet
