SEC Whistleblower Program: rewards of 10% to 30% for securities fraud tips

The SEC pays people who report securities fraud. If your tip leads to an enforcement action in which the SEC orders more than $1 million in sanctions, you can claim 10% to 30% of whatever the SEC actually collects. Through fiscal year 2025, the program had awarded more than $2.2 billion to more than 480 whistleblowers, according to the program’s annual reports to Congress. Here is who qualifies, what it actually pays, how to file, and the mistakes that cost people their award.

Who qualifies

Three things have to be true.

First, your tip has to be voluntary. That means you came forward before anyone with authority asked you for the information. If the SEC, Congress, another regulator, or law enforcement sent you a request, inquiry, or demand about the same subject first, your later submission is not voluntary. Speak up before the knock on the door, not after.

Second, you have to bring original information. The rules define this as information drawn from your independent knowledge or independent analysis, not already known to the SEC from another source, and not derived only from public materials. Independent knowledge is what you learned through your own experience, observations, and communications. Independent analysis is your own evaluation of information, even public information, that reveals something not generally known. A tip built only from news articles and court filings does not count.

Third, your information has to lead to a successful enforcement action in which the SEC orders more than $1 million in sanctions. Your tip does not have to be the only cause, but it has to cause the SEC to open or reopen an investigation, or significantly contribute to an action already underway. If the ordered sanctions never top $1 million, the action is not covered and there is no award. Once a case is covered, your payout is a percentage of whatever the SEC actually collects, not the amount originally ordered.

Some people are presumed not to have original information, even when they follow the rules above. That list includes company officers, directors, and partners who learned about the misconduct through the company’s own processes; compliance and internal audit staff; outside auditors; and anyone who got the information through a legal privilege. The idea is that these people already have a duty to surface problems inside the company.

There are three exceptions that put compliance staff, officers, and the others back in the running. You can still qualify if any one of these is true:

• You reasonably believe disclosure to the SEC is necessary to prevent the company from causing substantial injury to investors or to itself.
• You reasonably believe the company is trying to impede an investigation into the misconduct.
• At least 120 days have passed since you reported the information internally (to a supervisor, the audit committee, the chief legal officer, or the chief compliance officer), or since you first got it if those people already had it.

What it pays

The award is 10% to 30% of the money the SEC actually collects, and it only applies when the SEC has ordered more than $1 million in sanctions in the case. Where you land inside that band is not random. The SEC pushes the percentage up for the significance of your information, how much you helped, the law enforcement interest, and whether you reported through internal compliance first. It pushes the percentage down if you waited too long, interfered, or took part in the wrongdoing yourself.

The numbers are real, and some are large:

• The record single award is about $279 million, granted in May 2023.
• One whistleblower received $114 million in fiscal year 2021.
• In fiscal year 2024, the SEC paid more than $255 million to 47 people, with a top individual award around $82 million.

For perspective, the program’s very first award, back in 2012, was about $45,739. Most awards are far below the headline numbers. See the full year-by-year breakdown on our award tracker.

One thing that surprises people: awards are paid from a dedicated Investor Protection Fund financed by sanctions collected from wrongdoers. Your award does not come out of the money returned to harmed investors, and it is not funded by taxpayers.

How to file, step by step

1. Write it down clearly. Before you touch the form, organize the specifics: who did what, when, which securities laws it violated, and any documents you have. The SEC is looking for specific, timely, and credible information. Vague suspicions go nowhere.

2. File a Form TCR. There are two ways. File online through the SEC’s Tips, Complaints, and Referrals (TCR) portal, or mail or fax a paper Form TCR to the Office of the Whistleblower. The online portal is the SEC’s preferred route and the only one that gives you a printed confirmation.

3. Say you are filing as a whistleblower. On the “About You” page, answer “yes” to the question asking whether you are filing under the SEC’s whistleblower program, and complete the whistleblower declaration at the end. If you skip this, you can lose both your award eligibility and the extra confidentiality the program provides.

4. Keep your submission number. The portal lets you print a receipt with your TCR number. Save it. You will need it to claim an award later, and to link any follow-up information to your original tip.

5. To stay anonymous, hire an attorney. You can file without giving your name. But you can only collect an anonymous award if a lawyer represents you and provides their contact information with your submission. No attorney, no anonymous award. If you are weighing this, read do you need a whistleblower lawyer.

Timeline reality

This process is slow. Think years, not months.

After you file, the SEC decides whether to investigate. Most tips never lead to an action. The ones that do can take several years to move from investigation to a settled or litigated case.

When the SEC wins an action in which it orders more than $1 million in sanctions, it posts a Notice of Covered Action on its website. That posting starts your clock. You then have 90 calendar days to file a claim for an award using Form WB-APP. Miss that window and you forfeit the award, even if your tip was the reason the case existed.

After you claim, the Office of the Whistleblower reviews the application, issues a preliminary determination, and eventually a final order granting or denying the award. You can contest a denial. Add it all up and the path from tip to check often runs three to seven years or longer. The practical takeaway: after you file a tip, keep checking the SEC’s Notices of Covered Action page so a match does not slip past your 90-day window.

Retaliation protection

Section 21F of the Exchange Act makes it illegal for your employer to fire, demote, suspend, harass, or otherwise retaliate against you for reporting a possible securities violation. If your employer does, the law provides remedies: reinstatement, double back pay with interest, and your litigation costs and attorney fees.

There is a catch worth knowing. To get this anti-retaliation protection, you generally have to report the possible violation to the SEC in writing. Reporting only inside your company may not be enough to trigger the Dodd-Frank protection. The upside: you do not have to qualify for an award, or even want one, to be protected. Award eligibility and retaliation protection are two separate tests.

The SEC also goes after companies that try to muzzle employees with severance agreements or confidentiality clauses that block them from reporting to the government. For the full picture, read whistleblower retaliation protections explained.

Common mistakes

Relying on public information. If your tip is repackaged news, public court filings, or data anyone can pull, it is not original. Bring independent knowledge or real analysis that reveals something not already known.

Waiting until it is no longer voluntary. Once you get a subpoena, or the SEC is already onto the conduct from another source, your position weakens. Coming forward early is worth more than a more polished tip filed late.

Forgetting to file as a whistleblower. Answering “no” to the whistleblower question, or skipping the declaration, can quietly cost you your eligibility. This is a paperwork mistake with a seven-figure downside.

Missing the 90-day claim window. This is the most common way people lose money they earned. A Notice of Covered Action goes up, the 90 days run, and no claim gets filed. Set a reminder and watch the notices page.

Going anonymous without a lawyer. You cannot collect an anonymous award without an attorney representing you. Decide this before you file, not after.

Destroying documents or breaking the law to get evidence. Do not delete records, and do not steal privileged files or hack systems to build your case. It can sink your claim and expose you to liability.

If your tip is about commodities, futures, swaps, or crypto derivatives rather than securities, the SEC may not be the right agency. The CFTC runs a nearly identical reward program for those markets. See the CFTC whistleblower program.