CFTC Whistleblower Program Hauls In Seven-Figure Award to End 2019

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In December, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a $1 million-plus award to a person who submitted a tip to the agency with unique information that helped expose a securities fraud scheme and led to the CFTC filling charges.

According to the CFTC’s report, the whistleblower first provided the information through the company’s internal compliance program, which the employer submitted to another regulator, leading to that information ultimately being forwarded to the CFTC.

The award is noteworthy because this is an indicator that being the original source of information will still get a person a CFTC award even if another regulator passes that information on to the CFTC, so long as that tip leads to evidence of a violation that results in charges against the company or organization that allegedly committed the violation, and even if the reported conduct is not the basis of the charges that are ultimately brought.

In this particular case, the whistleblower identified potential wrongdoing, brought forth that information, and then investigators were able to use that knowledge and information as well as the whistleblower’s further assistance to uncover illegal acts in another area of operations.

CFTC whistleblower program going strong

The CFTC whistleblower program has not received as much coverage as the SEC whistleblower program, but it has picked up a lot over the last couple years and ended the year on a strong note. It first issued an award in 2014, and since then has awarded more than $100 million to whistleblowers. The covered actions taken by the agency associated with those awards have resulted in sanctions of more than $800 million.

To learn more about the steps you can take to submit critical information to the CFTC whistleblower program, contact an experienced whistleblower lawyer at Kardell Law Group.

By Steve Kardell | Published March 26, 2020 | Posted in Whistleblower Litigation

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