Few issues burn up my phone lines and email box these days as much as the new whistleblower bounty rules soon to come from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Little surprise, then, that when SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami appeared at the Securities Regulation Institute’s annual conference last week, the new whistleblower rules were discussed almost immediately.
For any last compliance officers out there who still don’t know, the SEC’s forthcoming rules will create a bounty program that lets whistleblowers reap as much as 30 percent of any settlement the SEC wins based on that whistleblower’s information. The agency proposed its program in November, accepted public comment on the proposal until Dec. 17, and is due to adopt final rules by late April.
