A pair of whistleblowers, including one that was involved in the underlying misconduct, are collecting over US$1 million for tipping off U.S. derivatives regulators.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it will award more than US$1 million to two whistleblowers that provided it with the initial tip, and additional cooperation that led to enforcement action.
The CFTC said that it opened an investigation after the first whistleblower’s tip; and that a second tipster “significantly contributed” to the enforcement effort “by providing investigative staff with first-hand information obtained through participation in the underlying scheme.”
The details of these cases are not disclosed, in order to preserve the anonymity of whistleblowers.
“Even whistleblowers that have some degree of culpability may be eligible for an award under the whistleblower program,” noted the director of the CFTC’s whistleblower office, Christopher Ehrman.
“We will continue to reward eligible whistleblowers and encourage them to come forward to aid in our investigations,” he added.
The CFTC’s director of enforcement, James McDonald, said that case demonstrates the growing significance of whistleblowers to its enforcement efforts.
“We have seen a clear trend identifying the increasing importance of whistleblowers, and our whistleblower office, in our enforcement program,” he said. “We expect this trend to continue as our enforcement program continues to grow.”