Fiscal year 2021 was a record year for US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblowers, as the regulator doled out $564 million to 108 tipsters, raising the total amount dispensed by the program to more than $1 billion since it began in 2010.
“This year has seen a number of critically important and first-of-their-kind enforcement actions, as well as record-breaking achievements for our whistleblower program, which we expect will lead to even more successful actions in the future,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement.
For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the SEC said it obtained judgments and orders for nearly $2.4 billion in disgorgement, which was a 33% drop from last year, and more than $1.4 billion in penalties, which was a 33% increase over fiscal year 2020.
The regulator filed 697 total enforcement actions, including 434 new actions, which is up 7% from the prior year; 120 actions against issuers who were delinquent in making required filings with the SEC; and 143 “follow-on” administrative proceedings that sought to bar people based on criminal convictions, civil injunctions, or other orders. The SEC credited the whistleblower program with being critical to the record-breaking year.
Among the new actions, 70% involved at least one individual defendant or respondent, and the actions concerned a wide range of emerging threats, including those regarding cryptocurrencies and special purpose acquisition...
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