The SEC’s Office of Whistleblower has released its first Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program for Fiscal Year 2011. The Report (available here) points out that because the Final Rules became effective August 12, 2011 (discussed here), there were only seven weeks of whistleblower tip data available for fiscal year 2011. The Report includes an Appendix, which list by subject matter and month, the 334 whistleblower tips received from August 12, 2011 through September 30, 2011. The most common complaint categories were market manipulation (16.2%), corporate disclosures and financial statements (15.3%), and offering fraud (15.6%).
The Report reviewed the activities of the Whistleblower Office, which included the adoption and implementation of the regulations governing the Whistleblower Award Program (see here) and the activities of the Whistleblower Office, which included establishing a "hotline" that has received over 900 phone calls.
The Report also provided data regarding the 334 tips received (which were divided into eleven different categories):
• Manipulation (54 tips or 16.2%);
• Offering Fraud (52 tips or 15.6%);
• Trading and Pricing (17 tips or 5.1%);
• Insider trading (25 tips or 7.5%);
• Corporate Disclosure and Financials (51 tips or 15.3%);
• FCPA (13 tips or 3.9%);
• Municipal securities and public pension (9 tips or 2.7%);
• Unregistered offerings (18 tips or 5.4%);
• Market Event (11 tips or 3.3%)
• Other (79 tips or 23.7%); and
• Blank (5 tips or 1.5%).
The Report also provided information regarding the geographic origins of the tips, with California having over 30, New York having over 20 and Florida and Texas both having over 15 (with no other state having more than 10). There were 32 tips from overseas, including 10 from China and 9 from the United Kingdom.
