Section 924(d) of Dodd-Frank requires the Securities and Exchange Commissions Office of the Whistleblower to report annually to Congress on Office’s activities, whistleblower complaints received, and the response of the SEC to those complaints. In addition, Section 21F(g)(5) of the Exchange Act requires the SEC to submit an annual report to Congress. The SEC published the whistleblower report on November 15.
According to the report, the Office received slightly fewer tips and awarded significantly less to whistleblowers in FY 2019, as compared to FY 2018.
This past year, the SEC received 5,212 tips. That’s a slight decrease from FY 2018. That brings the total number of tips since the program started to over 33,000.
California, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas and Florida had the highest number of tips domestically. The only surprise in that list is Pennsylvania. The other four states would be on this list based on population. It seems to me that the Pennsylvania whistleblowers are more active.
For the year, the SEC handed out $60 million in awards to whistleblowers. That is a decrease from the $168 million in FY 2018. Most of that was taken by the $37 million award granted in March 2019 and $13 million award to another person for the same action. The other six recipients split the remaining $10 million.
The numbers are not good for whistleblowers. Over 5,000 complaints were made and that lead to only 8 awards. Of those 8, seven reported the problems internally before going to the SEC. That should eb a warning to ignoring internal whistleblowers.
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