November 20, 2013
Released late last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2013 Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program (the “Report”) revealed that the program has continued to grow in popularity. The Report, however, also reveals the seeds of what may become the program’s future tribulations.
As anticipated, the program certainly appears to be attracting more participants both at home and abroad. The SEC previously reported that it received 3,001 tips, complaints and referrals for fiscal year 2012. That number was up roughly 8%, for a total of 3,238 tips for fiscal year 2013, bringing the total number of tips from whistleblowers since the program’s inception in August 2011, to 6,573. Moreover, the number of those tips, complaints, and referrals which originated from abroad increased by almost 25% in fiscal year 2013 – from 324 in fiscal year 2012 to 404 in fiscal year 2013. The Report also demonstrated that the vast majority of the tips continue to come from generally the same states and countries as they did in 2012, with California, New York, Florida and Texas again leading the pack for the states, and China outpacing India (which fell to fifth place behind Russia this year) to take over the number three spot behind the leaders for the past two years, United Kingdom and Canada. [...]