The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued its largest ever award to a whistleblower with a total value of $279 million.
The SEC generally issues awards ranging from 10% to 30% of combined financial penalties of more than $1 million. To receive such an award, The whistleblower must provide information that directly assists the SEC in successfully imposing enforcement action on a particular case.
In a statement issued on May 5, the Securities and Exchange Commission male The $279 million awarded to the unnamed whistleblower was more than double the previous record of $114 million in October 2020.
Additionally, the $279 million awarded in this latest case is the most of all whistleblower awards. issued For 2022, the SEC appropriated $229 million through 103 awards last year.
said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC Division of Enforcement Center.
These awards come from the Investor Protection Fund established by the US Congress. It is funded by aggregate financial penalties paid to the Securities and Exchange Commission by securities law violators and does not come from money owed to aggrieved investors.
In these circumstances, the SEC does not indicate the specific case to which the whistleblower award relates or the name of the whistleblower to protect their privacy.
As such, it is not clear if this is a major securities breach from the crypto sector or Wall Street.
Regarding the whistleblower, the SEC noted that it helped provide background information about a case it was already working on.
“Ongoing assistance to the whistleblower, including multiple interviews and written submissions, has been critical to the success of these proceedings,” noted Creola Kelly, chief of the SEC’s whistleblower office.
It added, “While the whistleblower’s information did not prompt the committee to open an investigation, their information did broaden the scope of the alleged misconduct.”
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The SEC’s whistleblower incentive program was established in mid-2010 by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law by former President Barack Obama. The law also at the same time created a similar program for the CFTC
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