SEC Whistleblower Lawyer Blog
While you may be aware of the SEC’s whistleblower program, which has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to those offering information and assistance to the agency in cracking cases and successful enforcement actions, you may not know that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also has a whistleblower program.
Like the SEC’s program, monetary awards paid to whistleblowers come from the Congressional-established CFTC Customer Protection Fund. The fund is solely financed from monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA.)
Corrupt Practices Bulletin
The CFTC recently published a news release regarding whistleblowers and corrupt practices. That is, improper payments or other incentives intended to influence government agents or officials. Commonly known as “bribes” or “kickbacks,” these corrupt practices may include:
- Misappropriating nonpublic material that a trader would want to know
- Payments made to get business connected to trading and advising, dealing with derivatives or swaps, and making those payments from investor funds
- Any action that affects, impacts, or manipulates the prices of derivatives
Individuals engaging in such activity may be charged with fraud, manipulation, false reporting, and a range of other charges under the agency’s regulations and/or the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).
Who Is A CFTC Whistleblower?
Just as the SEC does, the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program also pays monies to people who step up and provide credible information to the agency that results in $1M or more in collected sanctions.
Nearly anyone with information can be a whistleblower. Sometimes the whistleblower is an “insider,” an employee other individual with access to “inside information,” but not always. A whistleblower can also be a victim of fraud, or someone else who witnesses misconduct by others. However, a whistleblower is only an individual; an entity such as a company isn’t eligible.
Whistleblowers help the public by notifying authorities of conduct that harms the public, while also earning financial compensation for themselves.
If you suspect any kind of misconduct, please contact us for a no-cost consultation. Our CFTC whistleblower attorneys can help you if you have information regarding securities or investment fraud, violations of federal securities laws, false filings, market manipulation, or other misconduct. To be eligible, you must provide timely, credible, and original information or analysis.
What Is The CFTC?
The predecessors to the CFTC were the Grain Futures Act of 1922 and the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 to oversee primarily agricultural commodity futures in the US. The CFTC is independent US government agency created in 1974 to oversee all manner of futures trading.
In addition to commodities and other physical trading, futures trading has expanded into the financial industries. This includes securities from US and foreign sources, as well as currencies and stock indexes.
In December 2000, Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. This required both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC to develop a joint regulatory agency for single-stock futures. These futures began trading in November 2002. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010 also expanded the CFTC’s reach to the derivatives market.
The CFTC oversees these different markets and encourages competition. The agency’s oversight also protects these markets against fraud and other deceitful trading practices. Although they do no formal regulation, the agency does set standards for new major swap participants and dealers. Additionally, the CFTC helps the derivatives markets offset price risk and with price discovery.
Their mission statement is,“. . . to promote the integrity, resilience, and vibrancy of the U.S. derivatives markets through sound regulation.”
Retaining Experienced SEC Whistleblower Attorneys
Silver Law Group represents victims of securities and investment fraud. We have successfully recovered millions of dollars for investors through FINRA and NFA arbitration. Our attorneys have litigated cases involving futures, derivatives, excess fees and fraud on the market. Also, we have a dynamic practice representing whistleblowers before the CFTC and SEC. Contact us through our online form or at (800) 975-4345 for a consultation. Our attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, which means it costs nothing to hire us and we have the incentive to get you the maximum award.