Qui Tam

SEC Whistleblower Program--The SEC Inspector General's Report

By Finch McCranie, Esq.

Post-Madoff, we have followed the legislative efforts to help establish an effective SEC whistleblower program. We know that the Senate Banking Committee in particular has worked hard in attempting to devise the best overall arrangement to encourage and reward whistleblowers who report fraud within the SEC's jurisdiction.

Shortly before Congress authorized the first meaningful IRS Whistleblower Program in December 2006, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration issued its report on many of the changes needed for the IRS to use whistleblowers effectively.

Now, the SEC's Inspector General David Kotz has issued his report, "Assessment of the SEC Bounty Program." No one is surprised that it concludes that the SEC has not effectively encouraged, used, or rewarded whistleblowers over the past decades. Perhaps this report will pave the way for something meaningful--like the TIGTA report that preceded the now-promising IRS Whistleblower Program, which rewards whistleblowers with 15-30% of the government's tax recoveries.

The SEC report recommends adopting the "best practices obtained from DOJ and the IRS into the SEC bounty program." The SEC Inspector General's report states as follows:

Although the SEC has had a bounty program in-place for more than 20
years for rewarding whistleblowers for insider trading tips and complaints, our
review found that there have been very few payments made under this program.
Likewise, the Commission has not received a large number of applications from
individuals seeking a bounty over this 20-year period. We also found that the
program is not widely recognized inside or outside the Commission. Additionally,
while the Commission recently asked for expanded authority from Congress to
reward whistleblowers who bring forward substantial evidence about other
significant federal securities law violations, we found that the current SEC bounty
program is not fundamentally well-designed to be successful.

Full post as published by Whistleblower Lawyer Blog on April 05, 2010 (boomark / email).