The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower has recently released its annual report for fiscal year 2014.
Highlights of the report include:
- The SEC issued more whistleblower awards in fiscal 2014 than all previous years combined, including a record $30 million award to a foreign whistleblower.
- The first anti-retaliation case was brought against a hedge fund that retaliated against a head trader when he reported wrongdoing.
- 3,620 whistleblower tips came into the office for FY 2014, a 20 percent increase over the last two years (3,238 in FY 2013).
- Corporate disclosures, offering memo fraud and stock manipulation were the top categories for whistleblower tips.
- The SEC received tips from people in 60 foreign countries (top countries outside of the U.S. include the UK, Canada, India, China and Australia).
- The SEC has $437.8 million in its fund to disperse to whistleblowers, a 10 percent increase in international tips.
- More than 80 percent of successful whistleblowers reported internally first.
- Forty percent of people who received awards were current/former employees, while 20 percent were contractors, consultants, etc.
Click here to read the full report.
