F-3 Payment of awards.

17 C.F.R. § 240.21F-3
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01
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(a) Commission actions: Subject to the eligibility requirements described in §§ 240.21F-2, 240.21F-8, and 240.21F-16 of this chapter, the Commission will pay an award or awards to one or more whistleblowers who: (1) Voluntarily provide the Commission (2) With original information (3) That leads to the successful enforcement by the Commission of a Federal court or administrative action (4) In which the Commission obtains monetary sanctions totaling more than $1,000,000. (b) Related actions: The Commission will also pay an award based on amounts collected in certain related actions. (1) A related action is a judicial or administrative action that is brought by one of the governmental entities listed in paragraphs (b)(1)(i) through (iii) of this section or a self-regulatory organization as specified in paragraph (b)(1)(iv) of this section (collectively “governmental/SRO authority”), that yields monetary sanctions, and that is based upon information that either the whistleblower provided directly to a governmental/SRO entity or the Commission itself passed along to the governmental/SRO entity pursuant to the Commission's procedures for sharing information, and which is the same original information that the whistleblower voluntarily provided to the Commission and that led the Commission to obtain monetary sanctions totaling more than $1,000,000. (i) The Attorney General of the United States; (ii) An appropriate regulatory authority (as defined in § 240.21F-4); or (iii) A state Attorney General in a criminal case; or (iv) A self-regulatory organization (as defined in § 240.21F-4). (2) In order for the Commission to make an award in connection with a related action, the Commission must determine that the same original information that the whistleblower gave to the Commission also led to the successful enforcement of the related action under the same criteria described in these rules for awards made in connection with Commission actions. The Commission may seek assistance and confirmation from the authority bringing the related action in making this determination. The Commission will deny an award in connection with the related action if: (i) The Commission determines that the criteria for an award are not satisfied; or (ii) The Commission is unable to make a determination because the Office of the Whistleblower could not obtain sufficient and reliable information that could be used as the basis for an award determination pursuant to § 240.21F-12(a) of this chapter. Additional procedures apply to the payment of awards in related actions. These procedures are described in §§ 240.21F-11 and 240.21F-14 of this chapter. (3) The following provision shall apply where a claimant's application for a potential related action may also involve a potential recovery from a comparable whistleblower award program (as defined in paragraph (b)(3)(iv) of this section) for that same action. (i) Notwithstanding paragraph (b)(1) of this section, if a judicial or administrative action is subject to a separate monetary award program established by the Federal Government, a state government, or a self-regulatory organization (SRO), the action will be deemed eligible to qualify as a potential related-action only if either: (A) The Commission finds that the maximum total award that could potentially be paid by the Commission based on the monetary sanctions imposed would not exceed $5 million; or (B) The Commission finds (based on the facts and circumstances of the action) that the Commission's whistleblower award program has the more direct or relevant connection to that action. (ii) In determining whether a potential related action has a more direct or relevant connection to the Commission's whistleblower program than another award program, the Commission will consider the nature, scope, and impact of the misconduct charged in the potential related action, and its relationship to the Federal securities laws. This inquiry may include consideration of, among other things: (A) The relative extent to which the misconduct charged in the potential related action implicates the public policy interests underlying the Federal securities laws (such as investor protection) rather than other law-enforcement or regulatory interests (such as tax collection or fraud against the Federal Government); (B) The degree to which the monetary sanctions imposed in the potential related action are attributable to conduct that also underlies the Federal securities law violations that were the subject of the Commission's enforcement action; and (C) Whether the potential related action involves state-law claims and the extent to which the state may have a whistleblower award program that potentially applies to that type of law-enforcement action. (iii) The conditions in paragraphs (b)(3)(iii)(A) through (C) of this section apply to a determination under paragraph (b)(3)(ii) of this section. (A) The Commission shall not make a related-action award to a claimant (or any payment on a related-action award if the Commission has already made an award determination) if the claimant receives any payment from the other program for that action. (B) If a claimant was denied an award by the other award program, the claimant will not be permitted to re-adjudicate any issues before the Commission that the governmental/SRO entity responsible for administering the other whistleblower award program resolved, pursuant to a final order of such government/SRO entity, against the claimant as part of the award denial. (C) If the Commission makes an award before an award determination is finalized by the governmental/SRO entity responsible for administering the other award program, the award shall be conditioned on the claimant making an irrevocable waiver of any claim to an award from the other award program. The claimant's irrevocable waiver must be made within 60 calendar days of the claimant receiving notification of the Commission's final order. (iv) The provisions of paragraphs (b)(3)(iv)(A) through (D) of this section apply to program comparability determinations. (A) For purposes of paragraph (b)(3) of this section, a comparable whistleblower award program is an award program that satisfies the following criteria: (1) The award program is administered by an authority or entity other than the Commission; (2) The award program does not have an award range that could operate in a particular action to yield an award for a claimant that is meaningfully lower (when assessed against the maximum and minimum potential awards that program would allow) than the award range that the Commission's program could yield (i.e., 10 to 30 percent of collected monetary sanctions); (3) The award program does not have a cap that could operate in a particular action to yield an award for a claimant that is meaningfully lower than the maximum award the Commission could grant for the action (i.e., 30 percent of collected monetary sanctions in the related action); and (4) The authority or entity administering the program may not in its discretion deny an award if a whistleblower satisfies the established eligibility requirements and award criteria. (B) The Commission shall make a determination on a case-by-case basis whether an alternative award program is a comparable award program for purposes of the particular action on which the claimant is seeking a related-action award with respect to paragraphs (b)(3)(iv)(A)(2) through (3) of this section. (C) If the Commission determines that an alternative award program is not comparable, the Commission shall condition its award on the meritorious whistleblower making within 60 calendar days of receiving notification of the Commission's final award an irrevocable waiver of any claim to an award from the other award program. (D) A whistleblower whose related-action award application is subject to the provisions of paragraph (b)(3) of this section (including a whistleblower whose related-action award application implicates another award program that does not qualify as a comparable program as a result of paragraph (b)(3)(iv)(A) of this section) must demonstrate that the whistleblower has complied with the terms and conditions of this section regarding an irrevocable waiver. This shall include taking all steps necessary to authorize the administrators of the other program to confirm to staff in the Office of the Whistleblower (or in writing to the claimant or the Commission) that an irrevocable waiver has been made. (v) A claimant seeking a related-action award must promptly inform the Office of the Whistleblower if the claimant applies for an award on the same action from another award program. (vi) The Commission may deem a claimant ineligible for a related-action award if any of the conditions and requirements of paragraph (b)(3) of this section in connection with that related action are not satisfied.

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