Whistleblowers collect $6 million from Securities and Exchange Commission
Two groups of whistleblowers who provided information and assistance to the Securities and Exchange Commission will be rewarded with a total of $6 million, the agency said April 25.
The whistleblowers assisted an ongoing investigation, noted Scott Williams, CEO of Ethic Alliance.
“Information from whistleblowers can help at various stages of an investigation. Often whistleblowers, or multiple whistleblowers, can be leveraged at different points of an investigation as each whistleblower may have a different piece of the puzzle,” Williams said.
Ethic Alliance is a for-profit corporation and law firm whose purpose is to empower, educate and protect whistleblowers, ensuring they receive the protection they need and the rewards they are entitled to under US law (the US government will typically reward whistleblowers 10%-30% of the amount recovered or sanctioned under various whistleblower laws). Ethic Alliance protects whistleblowers through a secure, encrypted reporting and messaging platform, attaching the strong legal protection of attorney-client privilege from the moment a report is filed with us, and access to a network of specialty attorneys that have made careers protecting and supporting whistleblowers, and working with the US government to win whistleblower lawsuits.
In the new reward, the first group of whistleblowers provided “key documents” that led the SEC’s staff to request additional documents from the respondent, while the second group provided the staff with “valuable firsthand accounts of the misconduct at issue.” Both groups, which totaled five individuals, provided ongoing assistance during the staff’s investigation.
The first whistleblower group provided the SEC with documents that “formed the core of the Commission’s case,” the agency said.
The second whistleblower group provided the SEC with “valuable first-hand accounts of the respondent’s wrongdoing,” the SEC said. The whistleblower group “was familiar with the respondent’s systems and business processes” and provided continuing assistance to the SEC, including on-the-record testimony.
"Whistleblower tips are an integral component of the Commission’s enforcement program," said Creola Kelly, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, in a statement.
The SEC has awarded approximately $1.2 billion to 268 individuals since issuing its first award in 2012. All payments are made out of an investor protection fund established by Congress that is financed entirely through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators. No money has been taken or withheld from harmed investors to pay whistleblower awards.
Contact Ethic Alliance at info@ethicalliance.com
Related link: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-67?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
Photo by Christina Langford-Miller on Unsplash