- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Kyle Brasseur2019-12-12T16:43:00
Amid controversy surrounding proposed changes to the SEC’s whistleblower program, Chairman Jay Clayton continues to stress any adjustments won’t include a cap on awards.
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Are whistleblowers getting the short end of the stick? A recent case highlights one way in which the process for government rewards might be perceived as unfair.
The SEC has awarded over $260,000 to three individuals who jointly submitted a tip alerting the agency to a well-concealed fraud targeting retail investors that led to a successful enforcement action. The whistleblowers were, themselves, harmed investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to Congress, indicated it fielded 5,212 whistleblower tips in fiscal year 2019, down 1 percent from the record of 5,282 in FY2018.
Two pairs of claimants will receive whistleblower awards totaling more than $98 million and $24 million, respectively, for information they provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission that led to an enforcement action.
Discrimination against whistleblowers in the U.K. has risen to such a level that the government may need to actively pursue plans to afford greater legal protection, as well as introduce financial awards to compensate for their “career suicide.”
The Department of Justice released the details of its long-awaited corporate whistleblower awards pilot program that will prioritize reporting in areas of corporate crime not currently covered by existing whistleblower programs.
