SEC Announces Multi-Million Dollar Award for Whistleblower

No one proactively seeks to be a whistleblower when they show up to work in the morning.  While people of high integrity and ethics will focus on doing the right thing when faced with an ethical dilemma, they do so at great risk.  The life of a whistleblower is incredibly stressful and unglamorous.  The good news is that the law and the business community are consistently moving in the right direction of encouraging, supporting, and protecting these brave individuals.  The SEC whistleblower program is just one example of this promising trend. 

On November 28, 2022, the SEC announced an award of $20 million to a whistleblower who provided valuable information that contributed to a successful enforcement action. The order granting the award can be reviewed here. The SEC noted that in determining the appropriate award amount, it considered that the whistleblower provided significant information and continuing assistance that helped Enforcement Division staff more quickly and efficiently investigate some very complex issues.  Put another way, justice is better and more efficiently served, when courageous, ethical people are willing to step up and do the right thing.

Since issuing its first whistleblower award in 2012, the SEC has awarded over $1 billion to 283 individuals, and it is hard to fathom that trend changing course anytime soon.