IN SHORT
The largest-ever award highlights the importance of whistleblowers to the SEC's biggest cases.
May 2023 Alert
On May 5, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") awarded $279 million to a whistleblower, the agency's largest single whistleblower award in its history. Indeed, this award is larger than the aggregate annual awards to whistleblowers in each year other than fiscal year 2021. As is typical, the SEC did not provide details about the subject of the whistleblower's information, but the magnitude of the award suggests the covered matter was among the agency's most significant enforcement cases.
According to the heavily redacted SEC order, the whistleblower provided "significant" information that included "multiple written submissions, communications, and interviews" related to a "covered action" and two "related actions." Notably, however, this whistleblower's information did not cause the SEC to open its investigation; rather, the staff was already aware of potential misconduct and had opened an investigation by the time the whistleblower provided information. Nonetheless, the whistleblower's information caused the SEC staff to expand the investigation and saved the staff "significant time and resources."
Including this award, the SEC has now granted more than $430 million to whistleblowers so far this year, putting it on pace to exceed its previous high-water mark of $564 million awarded in 2021. Curiously, the number of claimants receiving...
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