The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will review two Trump-era changes to the agency’s whistleblower program, with an eye toward encouraging individuals to report wrongdoing.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler said Monday he has ordered agency staff to review the changes approved under former Chair Jay Clayton’s term. One amendment could preclude the SEC from offering a whistleblower award if another federal agency could issue a payout on a related case. The other allows the SEC to potentially lower the size of a large ($100 million or more) whistleblower award, instead of calculating the bounty as 10 to 30 percent of the total settlement, as the program’s rules expressly state.
