Wall Street, Pay Attention: Whistleblowers Will Reap $45 Million in CFTC Awards in 2018

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In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act created whistleblower programs under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For the most part, it’s been the SEC’s program that has garnered headlines in these first eight years. However, experts believe the CFTC program is about to begin making headlines of its own.

A recent report by an auditor indicates the CFTC expects it will pay out approximately $45.5 million in whistleblower rewards throughout 2018. This number would mark four times the total amount paid in the previous eight years combined. The money paid out would be in cases that have already had collected sanctions that were imposed by the commission.

In the 2017 fiscal year, there were 465 total whistleblower reports submitted to the CFTC, a number that represented a 70 percent increase over the previous year.

SEC program’s success is having an impact

Government officials have referred to the SEC’s whistleblower protection program as a “game changer” for enforcement, and the CFTC program is seemingly beginning to benefit from the SEC program’s success.

The government expects to collect a total of $560 million in sanctions related to whistleblower cases this year when combining the CFTC and SEC programs, as well as sanctions collected from other enforcement actions.

While the CFTC still is not receiving anywhere near the number of reports the SEC gets, the rapid increase in CFTC reports indicates more people are becoming aware of the benefits of reporting wrongdoing to the agency. Commonly reported activities include market manipulation, virtual currency trading, spoofing, false reporting, misrepresentations to customers, fraud and Ponzi schemes.

For more information and guidance on filing a claim under the CFTC whistleblower program, speak with an experienced Dallas attorney at Whistleblower Law for Managers.

By Steve Kardell | Published March 1, 2018 | Posted in Whistleblower Litigation | Tagged financial rewards, SEC, whistleblower payouts

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