CFTC Launches New Website for Whistleblowers

Another thing about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Last month, the agency unveiled the new website for its whistleblower program at www.whistleblower.gov. It looks pretty good, and it’s easy to navigate. It tells you what you need to know about the program, including how to submit a tip and how to apply for an award.

The CFTC’s whistleblower program was created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, and it provides monetary awards to people who voluntarily report violations of the Commodity Exchange Act. If your tip translates into an enforcement action that results in more than $1 million in sanctions, you stand to receive 10-30 percent of the money collected. The pay out may even include money collected by other agencies that piggyback off your successful tip.

Here’s the CFTC’s press release.

Meanwhile, the agency has apparently caught flak for the way it’s been accounting for its office leases, though after a year-long audit by the Government Accountability Office, it seems like much ado about little.

You can read a couple stories about it here and here, but after reviewing the GAO’s report, it’s hard for me to see the point of the whole exercise unless it was to fuel congressional squabbles over the CFTC’s budget.

And for my money, an agency that we’ve called on to regulate the multi-trillion-dollar derivatives markets needs a lot more than $250 million per year to do its job.