The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced an award of more than $20 million to a whistleblower.
The $20-million award is the third-highest since the SEC’s whistleblower program issued its first award in 2012; the program has now awarded more than $130 million to whistleblowers.
Read: How to blow the whistle
By law, the SEC protects the confidentiality of whistleblowers and does not disclose information that might directly or indirectly reveal a whistleblower’s identity.
“This whistleblower alerted us with a valuable tip that led to a near total recovery of investor funds,” said Jane Norberg, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. “Sizeable awards like this one should encourage whistleblowers everywhere that there are real financial incentives to promptly reporting potential securities law violations to the SEC.”
Whistleblower awards can range from 10% to 30% of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million. All payments are made out of an investor protection fund established by Congress that is financed through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators. No money has been taken or withheld from harmed investors to pay whistleblower awards.
Here’s a list of SEC’s top 10 whistleblower awards.
Also read: Casino company retaliated against whistleblower: SEC, for more on what happens to companies that retaliate