The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has awarded an anonymous foreign Whistleblower , who had come forward with information leading to an enforcement action with a regulatory bounty. The tipster is getting $4 million, in line with most payouts the Wall Street’s top regulator has made to tipsters since it distributing awards six years ago.
Committed to protecting the anonymity of informants, few details were available regarding the nature of the underlying facts or enforcement action or the identity of the whistleblower.
Monday’s announcement brings the whistleblower program’s total endowment to over $326 million since issuing its first award in 2012. SEC enforcement actions from tip-offs have resulted in nearly $1.7 billion in fines since the program’s inception in 2011.
The head of the SEC’s whistleblower program, Jane Norberg, stated: “Whistleblowers, whether they are located in the U.S. or abroad, provide a valuable service to investors and help us stop wrongdoing. This award recognizes the continued, important assistance provided by the whistleblower throughout the course of the investigation.”
Whistleblowing has become a staple of multiple US regulatory regimes, namely those of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the SEC. Both entities have deployed a system of programs and rewards in a bid to help support and streamline investigations.
Whistleblowers who voluntarily provide information to the commission leading to a successful enforcement action of $1 million or more are entitled to between 10 and 30 percent of the money that the SEC recovers from those sanctions.
