Fiscal Year 2021 was a record year for the Whistleblower Program (the “Program”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”). The Commission released its 2021 Annual Report to Congress (the “Report”) last Monday and it reflects substantial increases in many different metrics. The Program has already awarded more than $1.1 billion to over 200 individuals who provided “high quality information” in successful enforcement actions of the SEC and other agencies since its inception a decade ago. FY2021 marked the highest number of awards to both the number of individuals and in dollar amounts awarded. Awards totaling approximately $564 million were made to 108 individuals in FY2021. This exceeds a total of $562 million paid to 106 people combined since the Program’s beginning. These totals included three of the largest awards ever in the history of the Program: two awards of $114 million (one to two individuals; the second to a single whistleblower) and a $50 million award to joint whistleblowers.
Additionally, the past year included the largest number of whistleblower tips ever received. Tips rose approximately 76% to over 12,200; this is up from 6,911 in total from the prior year. This increase included an almost tripling of reports of market manipulation from 942 in FY2020 to 3,090 in FY2021. Reports relating to corporate disclosures and financial and offering fraud were the second and third largest types of allegations asserted.
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