As the New York Times explains, the SEC has opened a new whistblower office demanded by the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. It will respond to consumer tips, and if a consumer tip leads to a successful prosecution, the consumer and the federal fisc will benefit (and, perhaps, corporate wrongdoing will be deterred):
Under the program, corporate tipsters could reap as much as 30 percent of the money the S.E.C. collects from a company or its executives. To qualify for the reward, an employee must turn over new information that leads to successful enforcement actions yielding more than $1 million in fines. The agency will tap the $450 million Investor Protection Fund to dole out awards. Still, the S.E.C. says the whistle-blower program will actually save money in the long run, as tipsters offer guidance to the agency’s strapped staff of lawyers and investigators.
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