Responding to the Proposed Whistleblower Regulations for the Dodd-Frank Act

I. Introduction

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank") was enacted on July 21, 2010. One of Dodd-Frank's more significant portions from an employment law perspective is the addition of Section 21F to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Section 21F establishes a whistleblower program, which allows the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC" or "Commission") to pay "bounties" of significant monetary value to whistleblowers who voluntarily provide the SEC with original information about violations of securities laws. Specifically, if a whistleblower voluntarily provides original information to the SEC that results in the SEC obtaining monetary sanctions, the whistleblower can recover a reward between 10 percent and 30 percent of monetary sanctions totaling more than $1 million. See 15 U.S.C.S. § 78u-6(b)(1).

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