CEP Magazine (March 2021)

On January 7, five whistleblowers were awarded more than $1.1 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for their help in various stages of investigations that led to successful enforcement actions.^[1] Of that total, one whistleblower was awarded nearly $600,000 for continuing “to provide helpful assistance by meeting with investigative staff in-person, providing documents, and identifying witnesses.” It is important for compliance and ethics professionals to note that “[t]he whistleblower also repeatedly reported the concerns internally in an effort to remedy the violations.”

The chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower commented, “These awards underscore the breadth of ways that company insiders, as well as whistleblowers not affiliated with a company, can positively impact SEC investigations.”

1 Mondo Visione, “SEC issues Over $1.1 Million To Multiple Whistleblowers,” news release, January 7, 2021, http://bit.ly/39dT4ci.

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