Payment of First SEC Whistleblower Award Imminent
Ever since it was born out of the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill in 2010, all eyes have been on the success or failure of the SEC’s Whistleblower Program. Since the program officially went into effect in August 2011, the SEC reports that they have been continually receiving high quality tips at an impressive pace of roughly seven per day. As a result, the fact that, according to insiders, the first payment of an award appears to be imminent, there is a veritable spotlight on the Commission and the award determination process.
In responding to the rumors of a pending award, Sean McKessey, Chief of the SEC Whistleblower Office, has continued to express his enthusiasm for the program and the importance of actually making that first payment. In an article published on Huffington Post, McKessey stated “I view [the program] as already having been a very significant success, but I understand that people want to see the deliverable. And the deliverable, in our view, is paying people for good information…[t]he more the better, obviously.” Further,
As we await official confirmation of the first award payment, the SEC is reminding people that the amount of the award to those who come forward remains subjective, and that the sanctions ultimately imposed against a company must exceed $1 million before they are even eligible for an award. Specifically, at a conference earlier this week, Jane Norberg, deputy chief for the SEC’s Whistleblower Office, told attendees that although there is “no hard and fast formula [in making an award determination] at this point…it is in the SEC’s sole discretion as to how much of an award there is – whether it is 10% or 30% or somewhere in between.”
In an era where the importance of corporate accountability is reaching new heights, the first award from the SEC will undoubtedly send a strong signal. “I think it will be an affirmation that this will not just be a paper program, that we’re not just going out and making speeches,” McKessey said.
Source: The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/sec-whistleblower-reward-payout_n_1560044.html?ref=tw
Tags: corporate fraud, reward, SEC, SEC whistleblower award, SEC Whistleblower Program
This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2012 at 4:04 pm and is filed under corporate fraud, Recent News, SEC Whistleblower Program. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
