“The Division’s whistleblower office takes in thousands of tips per year, generating a fresh stream of case leads that deserve investigation: In FY 2014, the Division received approximately 15,000 tips, complaints, and referrals, and approximately 3,600 of these were from whistleblowers. Whistleblowers can often provide high-quality information that allows the Division to more quickly and efficiently detect and investigate alleged violations of the law. Staff from the Division’s Office of Market Intelligence (OMI) closely examine each tip to identify those that are sufficiently specific, credible, and timely to warrant the additional allocation of SEC resources. Individuals who voluntarily provide the SEC with original information that leads to a successful enforcement action resulting in monetary sanctions greater than $1 million may be eligible to receive an award equal to 10-30 percent of the monies collected. The Division believes momentum for this program is building. In FY 2014, the Office of the Whistleblower received more tips than ever before, made the largest number of awards, announced its largest award ever of $30 million to an individual, and returned over 2,700 phone calls from members of the public. The Division anticipates that these significant payments will further incentivize whistleblowers to come forward and submit high quality tips. In turn, the Division expects to initiate more investigations and to bring enforcement actions against violators where it would otherwise have not had sufficient information to do so.” Full article »