The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has awarded a record whistleblower award of $279 million, the largest-ever in the SEC’s history. Whistleblower awards typically range from 10% to 30% of collected monetary sanctions larger than $1 million.
The whistleblower must provide information that directly assists the SEC in successfully imposing enforcement actions on a particular case to receive an award. The $279 million awarded to the unnamed whistleblower is more than double the previous record of $114 million from October 2020.
The SEC has not disclosed whether the award relates to a major securities violation in the crypto sector or on Wall Street. The whistleblower award comes from an investor protection fund established by Congress and does not come from funds that are owed to harmed investors.
The SEC does not refer to the specific case the whistleblower award relates to or the name of the whistleblower to protect their privacy. The whistleblower provided key information on a case the SEC was already working on. The SEC’s whistleblower incentive program was established under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in mid-2010.
