The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has identified the first recipient of a ‘whistleblower’ award, intended to help curb fraud in the securities industry.
But the recipient and the case involved were not identified.
The SEC says the information it received from the whistleblower helped it stop a “multimillion fraud,’’ which it did not describe.
The whistleblower program was authorized by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. The program aims to reward individuals who give information that leads to an enforcement action in which more than $1 million in sanctions is ordered.
The authorized the whistleblower program to reward individuals who offer high-quality original information that leads to an SEC enforcement action in which more than $1 million in sanctions is ordered.
The payout in this first case is 30 percent of the amount collected by the SEC from the perpetrators of the fraud.
This is the maximum percentage allowed. And indicates that, in this case, the SEC has collected $166,000, so far.
Any increase in the sanctions ordered and collected will increase payments to the whistleblower.
The award recipient did not wish to be identified, the SEC said. But the person provided documents and other significant information that allowed the SEC’s investigation to “move at an accelerated pace and prevent the fraud from ensnaring additional victims.”
“This whistleblower provided the exact kind of information and cooperation we were hoping the whistleblower program would attract,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a statement. “Had this whistleblower not helped to uncover the full dimensions of the scheme, it is very likely that many more investors would have been victimized.”
A second whistleblower claim was denied, because it did not significantly contribute to a probe, the SEC said.
The SEC is getting about eight tips a day from the program, started last August.
