By almost any measure, Fiscal Year 2021 (ended September 30, 2021) was a watershed year in the history of the SEC’s Whistleblower program. According to the recently published annual report of the SEC’s Whistleblower Office, during FY 2021 the agency made the highest annual number of awards in the history of the program, both in terms of dollars and individuals awarded. Indeed, during FY 2021 the agency made more whistleblower awards than in all of the program’s prior years combined. The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower’s November 15, 2021 Report to Congress can be found here.
Continue Reading Record-Setting Year for SEC Whistleblower Program
SEC Whistleblower Program Continues to Surge
The SEC’s whistleblower program is now entering its seventh year. The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower’s November 15, 2017 annual report to Congress underscores that the agency’s whistleblower program continues to grow and remains an important part of the agency’s enforcement efforts. The number of whistleblower reports submitted to the agency once again increased in the 2017 FY, and the whistleblower reports continue to lead to significant enforcement recoveries, as well as to significant bounty awards to the whistleblowers, as detailed below. The Office of the Whistleblower’s 2017 report can be found here.
Continue Reading SEC Whistleblower Program Continues to Surge
SEC Whistleblower Reports Continue to Increase
The number of whistleblower reports to the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower under the Dodd-Frank Act’s whistleblower provisions continues to increase, according to the agency’s latest annual report. The November 16, 2015 report, which is entitled “The 2015 Annual Report to Congress: Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program,” and which can be found here, reports that the number of whistleblower reports to the agency has increased every year since the program was instituted in 2011. The agency has also made over $54 million in whistleblower awards since the program’s inception, including more than $37 million to eight whistleblowers in fiscal year 2015 alone.
Continue Reading SEC Whistleblower Reports Continue to Increase
Dodd-Frank Anti-Retaliation Provisions Do Not Protect Overseas Whistleblowers
In the latest fiscal year report of the SEC Office of the Whistleblower, the agency reported that as of the end of the 2013 fiscal year it had received a total of 6,573 whistleblower reports since the the Dodd-Frank whistleblower program’s inception. These figures include not only domestic whistleblower reports but also reports from a
Will Obstacles Deter the SEC’s Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program?
Whistleblower information may be one of the SEC’s “most effective weapons in its new enforcement arsenal,” but the agency’s whistleblower program “faces challenges on many fronts,” according to an April 23, 2013 New York Times Dealbook article entitled “Hazy Future for Thriving S.E.C. Whistle-Blower Effort” (here). As evidence of the whistleblower program’s promise