Whistleblower Programs Booming at SEC and CFTC

The two federal regulators recently submitted their annual reports to Congress for the fiscal year that ended September 30. And, well, business is booming.

In the last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission awarded more money to whistleblowers than it had in all prior years combined. Since 2012, it has awarded $326 million, and more than half of that—or $168 million—came in 2018. They include the two largest awards in the program’s history: an $83 million award to three whistleblowers in one case, and a $54 million award to two whistleblowers in another. And the pipeline may be growing because the agency received a record number of new tips (5,282). Most came from California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and Illinois in that order.

The CFTC’s program is smaller but growing faster. In 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission made more awards—five—than it had in its whole history to that point, and the value of those awards, $75 million, dwarfs the $12 million it had awarded until now. It also received a record number of new tips (760), which is sixty percent more than in the year before.

You can read the full reports here (for the SEC) and here (for the CFTC).

Or if you have timely, specific, and credible information that can help open or close an investigation, you can submit it online here (for the SEC) or here (for the CFTC).

Better yet, retain competent counsel to help you do it anonymously until the time is right.