In November, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued its first fiscal-year report on the whistle-blower program created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The report details the operations of the program and the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, the office in charge of administering the program. According to the report, during fiscal-year 2012, the Office of the Whistleblower returned over 3,000 phone calls to members of the public that had been made to the whistleblower hotline. During the same time period 3,001 tips were received. Of the 3,001 tips, the largest number dealt with corporate disclosures, followed by offering fraud and manipulation. The tips were received from all 50 states (California, Florida, and New York representing the three largest), as well as 49 countries (the United Kingdom, Canada, and India representing the three largest). Although only a single award has thus far been paid out, the fund from which awards are made is amply funded. The report is publicly available here.

Comment

In Enforcement Watch 6, we wrote about the creation of the whistleblower program under the Dodd-Frank Act, (Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Provision), and in Enforcement Watch 8, we discussed the first award made under the whistleblower program (SEC Makes its First Award To a Whistleblower Under the Dodd-Frank Act). The report recently published by the SEC makes clear that the "Office of the Whistleblower" is now fully operational and actively functioning. The office’s reported commitment to return all phone calls within 24 hours is impressive and combined with the statistics provided by the report, shows a serious commitment to the success of the whistleblower program. We expect to see additional awards being paid out under the program in the year to come, not only to American whistle-blowers but likely to whistle-blowers located abroad as well.