SEC Whistleblower program

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cancelled a meeting in October to consider controversial changes to its whistleblower program. Clearly, the agency is reconsidering, but Stephen M. Kohn, chair of the National Whistleblower Center, predicts we won’t see any details until 2020.

Stephen M. Kohn

Kohn argues that the proposed changes would destroy the program by discouraging whistleblowers from coming forward. When asked by a writer from the Corporate Crime Reporter how he feels about possible amendments to SEC’s proposals, Kohn had this to say:

“I’m on a wait and see on the outcome. The devil is in the details. They can meet us halfway. But on some of these, halfway is a disaster. But we will fight to the end. If the outcome is bad, we will litigate it and we will take it to Congress.”

However, he did say that the postponement of the decision suggests SEC staff are listening to what the NWC has to say. Kohn his team met with them several times and brought along emails and signature from 110,000 people.Continue Reading Don’t expect changes to SEC whistleblower program until 2020

On Monday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced the cancelation of Wednesday’s meeting on proposed changes to its whistleblower program. The meeting is expected to be rescheduled in November.

Stephen M. Kohn, chair of the National Whistleblower Center board, issued a statement: ” We welcome the postponement of the October 23rd meeting. It is vitally important that the SEC understands all of the issues and gets this rulemaking right.”

In a related development, Sen. Charles Grassley on Tuesday spoke on the Senate floor about a bill he introduced in September  that would addresses problems with the SEC proposals. Also on Tuesday, staff from the NWC delivered a petition with more than 100,000 signatures calle on the agency to reconsider the proposed changes” to the SEC whistleblower program.

In the meantime, the topic is starting to get some attention.

From Quartz:

Wall Street’s top watchdog loves to tout the success and importance of its whistleblower program.

“These awards show how critically important whistleblowers can be to the agency’s investigation and ability to bring a case to successful and efficient resolution,” said Jane Norberg, who heads the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) program, when announcing a $50 million reward for two whistleblowers in March.
Continue Reading SEC meeting on changes to whistleblower program cancelled

SEC-Building-DCThe Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recently published its annual report on the SEC Whistleblower program. According to the report, in 2018 the SEC paid the largest amount of whistleblower awards in the program’s history, with payouts totaling $168 million. This year the SEC whistleblower program also gave its largest whistleblower award to date, $84 million. Many of those receiving the reward were company outsiders and non-U.S. residents.
Continue Reading SEC Whistleblower Program Pays Whistleblowers a Record $168 Million in 2018