As I noted here in February 2016, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Dodd-Frank whistleblower program had been off to a slow start, having paid out just two awards totaling $530,000 over the entire life of the program. That changed dramatically this week, however, when the CFTC announced a huge award of more than $10 million to a whistleblower who provided "key original information that led to a successful CFTC enforcement action." The CFTC emphasized that, by law, it protects the confidentiality of whistleblowers and that it does not disclose any identifying information.
Aitan Goelman, Director of the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement, stated that the large award "shows the importance that the Commission places on incentivizing future...