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The First Five Years of the SEC Whistleblower Program

By Stephanie Korenman and Aegis J. Frumento
May 01, 2016

The Dodd-Frank Act directed that bounties be paid to persons bringing evidence of financial wrongdoing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Congress hoped that by making corporate insiders and others with knowledge of securities law violations eligible to receive a reward of 10% to 30% of the SEC's recovery (in excess of $1 million), more financial frauds would be unearthed sooner. With well-publicized SEC settlements now routinely tipping into the tens of millions of dollars, the monetary rewards to a successful tipster might be huge. The Dodd-Frank Act called those tipsters “Whistleblowers,” and the SEC's official Whistleblower program opened for business in August 2011.

We mark the approaching fifth anniversary of the Whistleblower program with this two-part retrospective. This month, we take a broad look at how the program intakes tips from Whistleblowers and what the SEC does with them. Next month, we will look more closely at the program's track record in issuing awards.

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