Whistleblower Award Sets Record At $279 Million By SEC

Whistleblower gets record-breaking $279 million in SEC sanctions

The SEC for the most part gives grants running between 10% to 30% of gathered money-related sanctions that are bigger than $1 million. The whistleblower must have provided information that directly assists the SEC in successfully imposing enforcement actions on a particular case in order to be eligible for this award.

The unnamed whistleblower received $279 million, which was more than double the previous record of $114 million set in October 2020, according to the SEC. Notably, the $279 million that was given out in this most recent case is more money than the SEC gave out to whistleblowers in 103 cases last year for the entire year 2022.

The SEC awards $100,000 to incentivize whistleblowers to report securities law violations

According to Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, "The size of today's award — the highest in our program's history — not only incentivizes whistleblowers to come forward with accurate information about potential securities law violations but also reflects the tremendous success of our whistleblower program."

These honours come from a financial backer security store that was laid out by Congress. It does not come from funds that are owed to investors who have been harmed because it is funded by collected monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by violators of securities laws. In these conditions, the SEC doesn't allude to the particular case the informant grant connects with, nor the name of the informant to safeguard their protection.

As a result, it is unclear whether this is related to a significant securities violation on Wall Street or the cryptocurrency industry. The SEC did note, however, that the whistleblower contributed key information to a case it was already working on.

SEC thanks whistleblower for helping in probes into Wall Street misdealing 

Creola Kelly, the head of the SEC's Office of the Whistleblower, said, "The whistleblower’s sustained assistance including multiple interviews and written submissions were critical to the success of these actions."

She added, "The whistleblower's information expanded the scope of the misconduct charged, despite the fact that their information did not prompt the Commission's investigation."

Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law by former President Barack Obama, the SEC's whistleblower incentive program was established in the middle of 2010. A similar program was also set up by the law for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission at the same time.