Historic Year for Whistleblowers, Report Confirms

The SEC Office of the Whistleblower has just released its report to Congress chronicling the program’s success over the last year. The data is extremely encouraging, serving as an apt reminder that a quiet revolution in law enforcement is underway, powered by whistleblowers who dare to speak out against misconduct. Highlights from this year’s report include 3,620 whistleblower tips – an increase of more than 20% in the number of tips in just two years. The SEC made 9 whistleblower awards in FY2014, the largest of which exceeded $30 million. The balance of the Investor Protection Fund at the close of the fiscal year was an astonishing $437 million! Tips came in from every state in the union and 60 countries, including a significant number of submissions from the UK, India, Canada and China. The report also highlighted the Agency’s new muscle, flexed in its case against Paradigm Capital (where I represented the whistleblower), in which the SEC used its new authority to bring anti-retaliation cases against entities seeking to undermine whistleblowers.