Government’s Message to Corporate America — “We Want Your Whistleblowers!”

On September 22, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of the Whistleblower announced that it had issued a $30 million bounty payment to a foreign whistleblower. This award is more than double the amount of any previous payment issued by the Office of the Whistleblower and comes fast on the heels of a $300,000 payment to a whistleblower who worked as a compliance professional. The magnitude of the $30 million award and the payout to a company’s own compliance advisor underscore a fundamental shift in enforcement strategy among regulatory agencies – a shift from encouraging internal corporate compliance to policing corporate conduct by encouraging employees to report directly to the government.