$17 Million Whistleblower Award Issued by SEC to Former Company Employee

Mary Jane Wilmoth

Published On: June 10th, 2016

Washington D.C., June 9, 2016. The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a whistleblower award of over $17 million to a former company employee who provided a tip that led to a successful SEC investigation and enforcement action. This is the second-highest amount awarded to a whistleblower by the agency since they first since they opened their whistleblower office in 2011.

Andrew Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement made the following statement regarding the award:

“Company insiders are uniquely positioned to protect investors and blow the whistle on a company’s wrongdoing by providing key information to the SEC so we can investigate the full extent of the violations. The information and assistance provided by this whistleblower enabled our enforcement staff to conserve time and resources and gather strong evidence supporting our case.”

Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower Sean X. McKessy added:

“In the past month, five whistleblowers have received a total of more than $26 million, and we hope these substantial awards encourage other individuals with knowledge of potential federal securities law violations to make the right choice to come forward and report the wrongdoing to the SEC.”

“It is well recognized that the payment of rewards is the backbone of an effective fraud detection program,” said Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto Partner Stephen M. Kohn. “This is a step in the right direction for the SEC’s Whistleblower Office.

The total SEC awards paid is still tiny in compassion to those paid by the Department of Justice. We hope the SEC starts to pay larger awards on a more frequent basis,” Kohn added. The SEC’s whistleblower program has awarded over $85 million to 32 whistleblowers since 2011.