The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced it is paying a US$1.5 million whistleblower award to a tipster who provided information that led to both a CFTC action and a related action by another federal regulator.
The CFTC does not report the details of these cases in order to protect the anonymity of whistleblowers. Yet, it noted that the whistleblower in this case tried to report their concerns internally before turning to regulators.
“While there is no requirement that a whistleblower report internally before approaching the commission, today’s award demonstrates that the commission may pay enhanced awards to those that do – that is one of the positive factors set out in our rules for the commission to consider in making its award determination,” Christopher Ehrman, director of the CFTC’s Whistleblower Office, said in a statement.
With this latest payout, the CFTC has now awarded more than US$85 million to whistleblowers since its first reward payment in 2014. In turn, enforcement actions based on these tips have generated more than US$675 million in total sanctions.
“Whistleblowers have become an integral part of our enforcement efforts, and I expect that trend to continue,” added James McDonald, enforcement director at the CFTC.