Whistleblower receives nearly $50 million award from SEC

Steffy Bogdanova
June 5, 2020 9:46 am

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced giving a nearly $50 million award to a whistleblower who provided the agency with important, first hand information and helped the agency bring a successful enforcement action and allowed investors to recover much of their money. This is the largest amount SEC has awarded to a whistleblower. The second largest award amounted $39 millions and was given in 2018.

Jane Norberg, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower commented:

Jane Norberg, SEC

This award marks several milestones for the whistleblower program. This award is the largest individual whistleblower award announced by the SEC since the inception of the program, and brings the total awarded to whistleblowers by the SEC to over $500 million, including over $100 million in this fiscal year alone.

Whistleblowers have proven to be a critical tool in the enforcement arsenal to combat fraud and protect investors.

Whistleblower

So far, the agency has awarded over $500 million to 83 individuals for their help since the first award was issued in 2012. Payment of the awards is taken out of an investor protection fund set up by Congress. It is financed through monetary sanctions of security law violations paid to SEC.

To be eligible for award, a whistleblower needs to voluntarily provide the commission with reliable information that leads to successful enforcement action. The awards range between 10 and 30 % of the money collected by SEC when the sanction is for more than $1 million.

According to the Dodd-Frank Act, SEC must protect the identity of the whistleblower and not disclose any information that could reveal it.

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Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
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