Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced an award of approximately $3 million to a whistleblower whose specific, credible, and timely tip led the CFTC to open an investigation and ultimately bring a successful enforcement action.

With this award, the CFTC has granted whistleblower awards associated with enforcement actions that have resulted in monetary sanctions totaling more than $1 billion. 

“This milestone illustrates that the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program has had a tremendous impact on increasing our enforcement efforts in its short history,” said CFTC Acting Director of Enforcement Vincent McGonagle. “In many of our actions, whistleblowers’ assistance has been critical in revealing wrongdoing, and their tips ultimately conserve the CFTC’s time and resources,” McGonagle continued.

About the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program

The CFTC’s Whistleblower Program was created under Section 748 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Since issuing its first award in 2014, the CFTC has awarded approximately $123 million to whistleblowers. The CFTC issues awards related not only to the agency’s enforcement actions, but also in connection with actions brought by other domestic or foreign regulators if certain conditions are met.

The Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) provides confidentiality protections for whistleblowers. Regardless of whether the CFTC grants an award, the CFTC will not disclose any information that could reasonably be expected to reveal a whistleblower’s identity, except in limited circumstances. Consistent with this confidentiality protection, the CFTC will not disclose the name of the enforcement action in which the whistleblower provided information or the exact dollar amount of the award granted.

Whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected. All whistleblower awards are paid from the CFTC Customer Protection Fund, which was established by Congress, and is financed entirely through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the CEA. No money is taken or withheld from injured customers to fund the program.

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Anyone with information related to potential violations of the CEA or the CFTC’s rules and regulations can submit a tip electronically by filing a Form TCR (Tip, Complaint or Referral) online at https://whistleblower.gov/overview/submitatip.

To learn more about the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program, please visit the program’s website at https://www.whistleblower.gov/.