First came the stunning news from the SEC on May 5th: it awarded a record $279 million to a whistleblower, dwarfing the previous record of $114 million set in 2020. Then last week the Wall Street Journal reported that the award was related to Ericsson’s $1.1 billion FCPA settlement with the DOJ and SEC in 2019. That’s right, an FCPA whistleblower!
As usual, the May 5th award order is too redacted to be helpful — federal law prohibits the SEC from disclosing the identity of whistleblowers — and the Journal didn’t name the whistleblower. We know Ericsson first disclosed the government’s FCPA investigation in June 2016, according to data from FCPA Tracker. That probably means the SEC logged the Ericsson tip sometime in 2015 or 2016, but we can’t be sure.
How big is the May 5th award? There’s only been one year when the SEC paid out more than $279 million to all whistleblowers combined, and that was FY 2021, when awards went to 108 individuals.
Before May 5th, the top five SEC whistleblower awards were:
$114 million in 2020
$110 million in 2021
$50 million in 2021
$50 million in 2020
$50 million in 2018
Ok, those are big numbers. But let me say again: On May 5th, the SEC paid a single whistleblower $279 million for an FCPA tip. A payday that size flashes dollar signs around the world. How many people who never paid attention to the FCPA are paying attention now?
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