The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that a $30 million award will soon be given to a whistleblower who provided the SEC with original information that led to a "successful enforcement action."
It will be the largest award made to date by the SEC's whistleblower program and the fourth award to someone living in a foreign country. Fourteen awards have been given since the SEC started the program in 2011. The previous high for an award was $14 million in October 2013.
This particular whistleblower, whose identity will remain protected by the SEC, provided the SEC with "information about an ongoing fraud that would have been very difficult to detect," said Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "This record-breaking award sends a strong message about our commitment to whistleblowers and the value they bring to law enforcement."
Sanctions exceeding $1 million must be enforced by the SEC in order to qualify for the whistleblower program, and qualifying whistleblowers can receive between 10 and 30 percent of money collected in a case.
"The money paid to whistleblowers comes from an investor protection fund established by Congress at no cost to taxpayers or harmed investors," the SEC said in a press release. "The fund is financed through monetary sanctions paid by securities law violators to the SEC. Money is not taken or withheld from harmed investors to pay for whistleblower awards."
The whistleblower award program was established in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and in 2010 the program received tips from people in 55 countries, according to the Wall Street Journal. Most foreign whistleblowers are from the United Kingdom, Canada and China.
"Whistleblowers from all over the world should feel similarly incentivized to come forward with credible information about potential violations of the U.S. securities laws," said Sean McKessy, the SEC's whistleblower chief.
