Less than one month after issuing a $22 million award, the SEC issued another multi-million dollar whistleblower award on September 20, 2016. The SEC’s most recent award exceeded $4 million.

The SEC issued its typical vague, redacted order granting the award claim. The order states that the SEC was issuing the award because the Claimant provided original information that led to successful enforcement pursuant to “Section 21F(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6(b)(1), and Rule 21F-3(a) thereunder, 17 C.F.R. § 240.21F-3(a).”  The greater than $4 million award constitutes between 10 to 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected by, or to be collected by, the SEC arising from the original information provided by the whistleblower.

With this latest award, the SEC whistleblower award program has now awarded more than $111 million to 34 whistleblowers since 2011. In conjunction with this award, Jane Norberg, Acting Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, released a statement describing the aim of the SEC’s whistleblower program, stating: “Our program continues to incentivize whistleblowers to come forward with solid information that helps us bring violators to justice before more wrongdoing can occur.”

As the multi-million dollar awards continue to mount, including two very significant awards in the past month, the SEC is clearly communicating its message that whistleblowers stand to reap substantial awards for reporting alleged violations of securities laws.