Whistleblower Protection
Legal safeguards shielding employees who report corporate fraud or misconduct from employer retaliation.
What is Whistleblower Protection?
Whistleblower protection refers to legal safeguards that shield employees, contractors, or other individuals who report suspected fraud, securities violations, or other corporate misconduct from employer retaliation such as termination, demotion, harassment, or pay reductions. In the US, the SEC Whistleblower Program — established under Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 — offers financial awards of 10–30% of sanctions collected in successful enforcement actions exceeding $1 million. The program also strictly prohibits retaliation. Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act provides additional civil protections for employees of public companies who report securities fraud to regulators or supervisors.
Example
In May 2022, the SEC awarded approximately $229 million to a single whistleblower — the largest single award in the program's history — for original information that led to a successful enforcement action. Since the program's 2011 inception, the SEC has awarded over $1.3 billion in total to more than 300 individuals, generating tips that led to enforcement actions returning billions of dollars to harmed investors.
Source: SEC — Office of the Whistleblower Annual Report to Congress 2023