On October 15, 2021, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower announced multi-million dollar awards to two whistleblowers who provided the SEC with information that assisted the agency in bringing a successful enforcement action.  (The order granting the awards can be accessed here.)  The larger of the two awards, $32 million, was awarded to the whistleblower whose information caused the opening of the investigation and exposed difficult-to-detect violations.  The second award of $8 million was given to a second whistleblower who submitted important additional information after the investigation was already underway.

Emily Pasquinelli, Acting Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, said in a press release that “[t]hese whistleblowers reported critical information that aided the Commission’s investigation and provided extensive, ongoing cooperation that helped the Commission to stop the wrongdoing and protect the capital markets.”

Since the inception of the whistleblower program in 2011, the SEC has awarded approximately $1.1 billion to 218 individuals.

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