CFTC Whistleblower Program Reports on Record 2023 Fiscal Year

On October 31, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released its 2023 Annual Report on the CFTC Whistleblower Program. The report reveals that in the 2023 Fiscal Year (FY 2023), the CFTC received a record number of whistleblower tips.

“The CFTC is the little engine that could,” says leading whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto. “Their staff has a strong reputation of being attuned to the problems that whistleblowers face. This report showcases the continued success of the agency’s whistleblower program.”

During FY 2023, the CFTC Whistleblower Program received 1,530 whistleblower tips, which surpasses the previous record of 1,506 tips received in FY 2022. Over the course of the fiscal year, the CFTC issued seven awards totaling more than $16 million. Since it was established in 2010, the CFTC Whistleblower Program has awarded more than $350 million to whistleblowers and whistleblower tips have allowed the agency to recover over $3 billion from fraudsters.

“The record number of whistleblower tips highlights the CFTC Whistleblower Program’s remarkable growth in recent years, which has led to a funding crisis for the program,” adds Kohn. “It is absolutely essential that Congress passes the bipartisan CFTC Whistleblower Fund Improvement Act to ensure that whistleblowers can continue to support the CFTC’s critical anti-fraud initiatives.”

Introduced in July, the CFTC Whistleblower Fund Improvement Act of 2023 provides a long-term fix to a funding crisis threatening the CFTC Whistleblower Program. The bill raises a cap on the fund used to finance the program. The cap, set in 2010, has not been altered to match the remarkable growth of the program.

“Whistleblowers play a vital role in supporting CFTC investigations related to fraud and other illegality,” said CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero. “The CFTC could not fully protect customers and markets without whistleblowers. Whistleblowers help identify fraud and other illegality, interpret key evidence, and save considerable Commission resources and time. The faster we can stop fraud, the more we can protect customers from harm.”

According to the report, the CFTC Whistleblower Program “received tips and complaints regarding activities including but not limited to market manipulation, spoofing, insider trading, corruption, illegal swap dealer business conduct, recordkeeping or registration violations, and fraud or manipulation related to digital assets, precious metals, and forex trading.”

Through the CFTC Whistleblower Program, qualified whistleblowers, individuals who voluntarily provide original information that leads to a successful enforcement action, are entitled to monetary awards of 10-30% of the funds collected by the agency in the enforcement action aided by their disclosure.