In one of its largest awards ever, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is paying a pair of whistleblowers over US$50 million.
The regulator has announced the second-largest award under its whistleblower program, which pays for tips that lead to successful enforcement action.
The payout of over US$50 million is being split evenly between two whistleblowers “whose information alerted SEC staff to violations that involved highly complex transactions and would have been difficult to detect without their information,” according to a release.
The tips led to enforcement action that resulted in “tens of millions of dollars” being returned to investors, the SEC said.
“Today’s award is the second largest in the history of the program, reflecting the tremendous contribution of these joint whistleblowers to our ability to recover funds for harmed investors,” said Jane Norberg, chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower.
The agency said that the whistleblowers in this case also provided “exemplary assistance” to SEC staff during their investigation, which included numerous meetings and providing investigators with “voluminous detailed documents.”
A third person who also sought an award in the case was denied. The commission ruled that the investigation was opened based on the information provided by the two original tipsters, and the third claimant didn’t provide information that contributed to the successful enforcement action.
With these latest awards, the SEC has now paid over US$812 million to 151 whistleblowers.
“The SEC has now awarded over a quarter of a billion dollars to whistleblowers in the first seven months of this fiscal year alone, demonstrating the tremendous value of whistleblowers to our enforcement program,” Norberg said.