Whistleblower awarded more than $37M by SEC

A whistleblower has been awarded more than $37 million resulting from information they shared with the Securities and Exchange Commission about wrongdoing.

The SEC says that the payment was made for information that it did not previously know and that led to a successful enforcement action. Under the terms of the program whistleblowers are awarded between 10% and 30% of the monetary sanctions collected when they are above $1 million.

Awards are paid from an investor protection fund, established by Congress, and financed entirely from monetary sanctions received from those penalized following enforcement action. No details that can identify the whistleblower are made public by the SEC, with anonymity protected under the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The SEC says that in this case, the whistleblower met with its staff and identified potential witnesses and documents, which conserved staff time and resources.

“[The] award illustrates the importance of the SEC’s whistleblower program, as the whistleblower’s information helped the agency return millions of dollars to harmed investors,” said Creola Kelly, chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower.