After much deliberation, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued final rules implementing the whistleblower program mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the new rules, individuals (referred to as whistleblowers) may claim rewards if they voluntarily provide to the SEC original information about a violation of the federal securities laws, including violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (see our January 24 blog post on this topic) that leads to a successful enforcement action resulting in monetary sanctions that total more than $1 million.
If an individual meets each of these requirements, the SEC will be required to award the whistleblower between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary penalties recovered, including penalties recovered in related actions by other regulatory agencies.