Whistleblower Collects Award Worth $900,000 from SEC
- posted: Feb. 23, 2017
- Whistleblower Litigation
In the latest U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower award, an unidentified insider received $900,000 for his or her role in uncovering corporate or agency wrongdoing. According to the SEC, the whistleblower provided key information that played a role in helping the agency bring successful enforcement actions against several parties.
The agency announced the award on December 9, making it the second time within that same week that it paid out an award to a whistleblower. It is a sign of the increasing frequency of these awards, along with the increasing quality of the tips the SEC is seeing.
As always, the SEC did not provide any information about the whistleblower or the specific action it took. Federal law prohibits the agency from releasing any information that could potentially identify the whistleblower to the public.
More tips and awards than ever in 2016
This year has been a particularly busy one for the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. Awards handed out this year totaled more than the previous five years of the program’s existence combined. To date, 37 whistleblowers have received a total of $136 million in awards. The resulting enforcement actions from the tips provided by whistleblowers have led to more than $874 million in financial remedies. These numbers are expected to continue to increase in 2017.
The program provides whistleblowers with awards of 10 to 30 percent the total value of the enforcement action if their unique tips resulted in sanctions valued at $1 million or more. The SEC has reported a larger number of tips each year since the program started in 2011.
For in-depth guidance on asserting your rights when serving as a whistleblower, speak with an experienced Dallas attorney at Whistleblower Law for Managers.
