Whistleblower
Advocates
Award Winning Attorneys
SEC WHISTLEBLOWER PROGRAM
SEC Whistleblower Awards to Date
Established by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, the SEC’s bounty program grants eligible whistleblowers 10-30% of monetary sanctions levied by the SEC in an enforcement action where total sanctions exceed $1 million.
In our list of whistleblower bounties granted to date, we do more than just tell you an award amount. We want our clients & friends to know what factors contributed to the tipster’s success, and to provide key documents issued by the SEC for each award. For additional information, learn more about how the SEC whistleblower award process works.
| Amount Awarded | Date | Description | Factors | Key Docs |
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| 500K | 3/29/2021 | Claimant reported potential securities violations internally and then followed up by reporting to the SEC within the 120-day “safe-harbor.” The SEC found that the information allowed it to shut down an ongoing fraud. |
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| 490K | 1/07/2021 | Total of three (3) awards to three different Claimants, derived from two different Covered Actions. Two Claimants were awarded ~$170,000 each in the first Covered Action. The same two were awarded ~$70,000 each in the second Covered Action, which also was the basis for a ~$10,000 award to the third Claimant. The SEC’s Order discusses the respective timing of Claimants’ reporting and degrees of their contributions. |
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| 450K | 3/30/2020 | Whistleblower provided valuable information and assistance to an ongoing investigation and successful enforcement action. The Staff noted that he/she had compliance related responsibilities, reported internally and suffered hardships for doing so. |
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| 437.5K | 6/03/2014 | Whistleblowers provided the SEC with information and assistance in a complex area of the securities market. |
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| 400K | 12/07/2020 | Joint Claimants provided significant information alerting the SEC to securities violations, and were granted an award that was noted as serving an important law enforcement interest. |
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| 400K | 7/31/2014 | After reporting internally, on several occasions and through several mechanisms, the whistleblower timely reported significant securities violations to the SEC. The whistleblower's efforts allowed the Staff's investigation to be more efficient. Due to special circumstances associated with the case, the Commission exercised its discretion to find that the whistleblower "voluntarily" provided the original information. |
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| 325K | 11/04/2015 | A whistleblower, who was a former investment firm employee, provided detailed information about possible securities violations and potentially knowledgeable individuals. The monetary award was reduced because the Commission deemed his/her delay in reporting unreasonable, even though the "delay was limited in duration," noting that the perpetrators obtained additional ill-gotten gains because of the whistleblowers failure to report until after he left the firm. |
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| 300K | 12/14/2020 | Claimant was an employee at the relevant entity who learned of the potential securities law violation(s) through his/her audit-related responsibilities. While this can disqualify a claimant from a whistleblower award, in this case, Claimant “had ‘a reasonable basis to believe that the relevant entity [was] engaging in conduct that w[ould] impede an investigation’” and thus remained eligible. |
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| 300K | 8/29/2014 | A whistleblower, who worked as an audit or compliance professional, reported possible securities violations to the SEC, after his/her employer failed to take timely and appropriate action. Specifically, the whistleblower reported internally, including to his/her supervisor, yet no action was taken within 120 days of this initial report. |
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| 277K | 1/22/2020 | Whistleblower provided valuable information and assistance that led to a successful investigation. The Staff emphasized that the whistleblower's assistance saved time and resources, what was reported closely mirrored actual charges and the relatively small award was because of collection problems. The Commission counted those amounts distributed by the court appointed receiver as collected monetary sanctions, increasing the whistleblower's award accordingly. |
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Balance of Investor Protection Fund From Which Awards Are Paid (as of FY2021)
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SEC Whistleblower Awards Paid (As of FY2021)
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Number of SEC whistleblower submissions in FY2021
