Since the Securities and Exchange Commission set up its whistleblower program in 2011, 6500 people have stepped forward as “whistleblowers.” Maxwell Murphy of the Wall Street Journal made a Freedom of Information Act request to find out more.
How successful has the program been and are the people filing really “whistleblowers”?
Of those 6500, only 42 listed themselves as executives or board members. Retirees were the largest group with 365 reports, followed by investors with 290 complaints and engineers coming in third.
According to the 2013 annual report, there were 334 whistleblower reports in 2011, with 3001 in FY2012 and 2013 in FY2103.
The SEC has doled out six whistleblower bounties. Discounting the time it takes to bring a case and investigate, the bounties may not have caught up with the complaints filed. Perhaps the ratio will become better than 1 in 1000.
Sources:
- Meet the SEC’s 6,500 Whistleblowers by Mawwell Murphy in the Wall Street Journal
- FOIA Response Sheds Light on Backgrounds of SEC Whistleblowers by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week
- 2013 Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program
- How Well is the SEC’s Whistleblower Program Working?