An SEC whistleblower award pays an individual between 10% and 30% of the money the Securities and Exchange Commission collects when that person’s tip leads to a successful enforcement action with sanctions above $1 million. To qualify, you have to voluntarily give the SEC original information in writing about a possible violation of the federal securities laws, and you have to be an individual rather than a company. The program, created by Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, has paid nearly $2 billion to close to 400 whistleblowers through fiscal year 2023.1
Who Qualifies for an Award
Four conditions have to line up. You have to act voluntarily, meaning you contact the SEC before the agency (or another authority acting on its behalf) contacts you. Your information has to be original, meaning it comes from your independent knowledge or analysis and isn’t already known to the Commission. It has to be specific, timely, and credible enough that it actually leads the SEC to open a new investigation, reopen a closed one, or significantly contribute to an existing one. And the resulting enforcement action has to bring in more than $1 million in monetary sanctions.
Only individuals qualify. Companies and organizations cannot be whistleblowers under the program.
“Voluntary” is where a lot of otherwise strong claims fall apart. Desiree Fixler, the former head of sustainability at Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm DWS, was denied an award after spending more than 100 hours over two years helping the SEC build a case that ended in a $19 million sanction. The SEC concluded her submission was not voluntary because she had first taken her concerns to the Wall Street Journal, and SEC officials had seen the coverage and reached out to her before she filed anything formal. She appealed to the D.C. Circuit in May 2026.
A related fight in the Eleventh Circuit, John Doe et al v. U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, involves tipsters who filed with the SEC on time but also published reports about the misconduct online. The SEC denied the award, saying the information didn’t “lead to” the enforcement action because investigators had worked from the public reports rather than the formal filing. The National Whistleblower Center filed an amicus brief in February 2026 arguing that reading undermines the statute’s original-source rules.
How to Submit a Tip
Tips go to the SEC electronically through the Tips, Complaints and Referrals portal using Form TCR, or by mailing a paper version. You can file anonymously, but only if you have an attorney submit the paperwork and sign the required certifications for you.
The SEC has committed to protecting whistleblower identities “to the fullest extent possible” and won’t release names in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Courts can still compel disclosure during proceedings, and the SEC can share information with other government agencies.
How Awards Are Calculated and Paid
The award range is 10% to 30% of the monetary sanctions the SEC collects above the $1 million threshold. Where you land in that range depends on factors like the significance of your information, the assistance you provided, the SEC’s law enforcement interest in the case, and whether you participated in internal compliance systems.
Since a 2020 rule amendment, the SEC presumes a 30% award when the total payout is $5 million or less and no negative factors apply. A 2022 amendment made clear that the Commission may consider the size of a potential award only as a reason to increase it, not as a reason to cut it back.
Awards come out of the Investor Protection Fund, which is financed by sanctions collected from violators. No taxpayer money is involved, and paying an award does not reduce what harmed investors receive.
The largest award to date came on May 5, 2023, when the SEC paid nearly $279 million to a single whistleblower whose information expanded the scope of the agency’s action against Ericsson. That more than doubled the prior record of $114 million from October 2020. An $82 million award was announced on August 23, 2024, and a $104 million payout was split among seven whistleblowers in August 2023.
The Claim Process and Timelines
When an enforcement action produces sanctions over $1 million, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower publishes a Notice of Covered Action. From that posting date, you have 90 calendar days to file Form WB-APP to claim an award.
The Claims Review Staff evaluates the application after all appeals in the underlying enforcement matter are resolved, then issues a preliminary determination recommending a grant or denial. If you disagree, you have 60 days to request reconsideration. If the Commission issues a final denial, you have 30 days to appeal to a U.S. Court of Appeals.
Expect the review to take time. The SEC has historically needed more than two years to work through many claims, and the queue is clogged: in fiscal year 2024, more than 14,000 of about 25,000 tips came from just two individuals, and the pattern repeated in fiscal 2025 with the same two people responsible for roughly 12,000 of 27,000 tips. The 2020 amendments also gave the SEC authority to permanently bar anyone who files three frivolous applications.
One recent trend worth knowing about: in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, the SEC denied all 24 award claims submitted, only the second time since 2016 the agency granted nothing in an opening quarter.
Protection From Retaliation
Dodd-Frank prohibits an employer from firing, demoting, suspending, harassing, or otherwise discriminating against an employee for reporting potential securities law violations. If you are retaliated against, you can sue in federal court for reinstatement, double back pay with interest, and reasonable attorneys’ fees. The SEC can also bring its own enforcement action against a retaliating employer.
A separate rule, Rule 21F-17(a), bars anyone from impeding communication with the SEC about potential violations. The Commission has used it against companies that leaned on restrictive confidentiality agreements, compliance manuals requiring legal-department sign-off before contacting regulators, and settlements that conditioned the return of investor money on a promise not to report misconduct.
The reach of Dodd-Frank’s retaliation shield is narrower than many employees assume. In Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers (2018), the Supreme Court held unanimously, in an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that the anti-retaliation provision protects only people who report to the SEC. Paul Somers, fired after raising concerns internally but before reporting to the agency, was not covered. Employees who report only up the chain at work may still have a claim under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which covers internal reporting but carries a shorter filing window and more limited remedies.
Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation claims got easier to prove in February 2024, when the Supreme Court decided Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC. The Court held unanimously that a SOX whistleblower needs to show only that the protected activity was a “contributing factor” in an adverse employment action. Proof of “retaliatory intent” or animus is not required.
Pending Legislation
On March 26, 2025, Senators Chuck Grassley and Elizabeth Warren reintroduced the SEC Whistleblower Reform Act of 2025 as S.1149, joined by Senators Susan Collins, Raphael Warnock, and Catherine Cortez Masto. The bill would extend anti-retaliation protection to employees who report to a direct supervisor rather than only to the SEC, effectively overriding Digital Realty. It would also guarantee a jury trial in retaliation suits, require the SEC to make an initial disposition of award claims within one year, ban predispute arbitration agreements that waive whistleblower rights, and extend coverage to violations under the jurisdiction of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, and self-regulatory organizations. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and had not moved further as of mid-2026.