secLess 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.

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Photo of Lloyd B. Chinn Lloyd B. Chinn

Lloyd B. Chinn is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of the Whistleblowing & Retaliation Group. He litigates employment disputes of all types before federal and state courts, arbitration tribunals (e.g., FINRA, JAMS and AAA), and before administrative…

Lloyd B. Chinn is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of the Whistleblowing & Retaliation Group. He litigates employment disputes of all types before federal and state courts, arbitration tribunals (e.g., FINRA, JAMS and AAA), and before administrative agencies in New York and across the country. Lloyd’s practice ranges from litigating compensation disputes to defending whistleblower, discrimination and sexual harassment claims. Although he represents employers in a wide range of industries, including law, insurance, health care, consulting, media, education and technology, he focuses a substantial portion of his practice on the financial services sector. He has tried to final verdict or arbitration award substantial disputes in this area.

Due to Lloyd’s litigation experience, clients regularly turn to him for advice regarding the full range of employment matters, including terminations, whistleblower policy and procedure, reductions in force, employment agreements, and employment policies. For example, in the wake of the financial crisis, he has counseled a number of firms through reductions in force and related bonus and deferred compensation disputes. Lloyd has also been retained to conduct internal investigations of allegations of workplace misconduct, including claims leveled against senior executives.

Lloyd has represented global businesses in matters involving Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank whistleblower claims. He has taken an active role in the American Bar Association on these issues, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Whistleblower subcommittee of the ABA Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Lloyd has spoken on whistleblowing topics before a numerous organizations, including the American Bar Association, ALI-ABA, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and New York University School of Law. He has testified twice before Congressional subcommittees regarding whistleblower legislation and has also published blog postings, articles and client alerts on a variety of topics in this area, including the Dodd-Frank Act’s whistleblower provisions. Lloyd is a co-editor of Proskauer’s Whistleblower Defense Blog, and he has been widely quoted by on whistleblower topics by a number of publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the National Law Journal and Law 360.

Lloyd has also become active in the International Bar Association, presenting on a variety of subjects, including: the #MeToo movement, the COVID-19 pandemic and employment law, and cross-border harmonization of employment provisions in transactions. Lloyd also hosts a quarterly roundtable discussion among financial services industry in-house employment lawyers. He has also published articles and given speeches on a variety of other employment-law topics, including non-solicitation provisions, FINRA arbitration rules, cross-border discovery, e-discovery, and the use of experts.