WASHINGTON, D.C.— Dominick Freda, Legal Director, issued the following statement on the filing of an amicus brief, led by the Government Accountability Project, in support of a whistleblower wrongfully deprived of an award by the SEC, in John Doe v. SEC, No. 25-60572 (5th Cir.):
“Whistleblowers serve a critical role in policing the securities markets by coming forward with evidence of wrongdoing that is unlikely to be discovered without their information. That is precisely what occurred here, where the individual Petitioner, without the help or advice of a lawyer, revealed important and credible evidence of securities law violations that caused the SEC to investigate and, ultimately, bring a successful enforcement action resulting in a significant monetary sanction. The Petitioner’s actions clearly warranted an award under the SEC’s whistleblower program, yet the SEC denied Petitioner’s application—not because of any defect in Petitioner’s information—but because the SEC’s staff opened an investigation after Petitioner reported that information publicly but before Petitioner was able to tender it to the SEC on the specified form. So, whether the pro se Petitioner would be rewarded for coming forward with the information that undeniably led to the successful enforcement of the securities laws depended on when the SEC’s staff opened an investigation.
“As we and our fellow amici explained in the brief, the SEC’s denial of Petitioner’s application is not only fundamentally...
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