SEC Releases Interpretation of Whistleblower Rules

The SEC issued an interpretive rule to clarify, for purposes of employment retaliation protections, an individual's status as a whistleblower. The interpretive rule clarified that: "for purposes of the employment retaliation protections provided by Section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ('Exchange Act'), an individual's status as a whistleblower does not depend on adherence to the reporting procedures specified in Exchange Act Rule 21F-9(a) [('Procedures for Submitting Original Information')], but is determined solely by the terms of Exchange Act Rule 21F-2(b)(1) [('Whistleblower Status and Retaliation Protection')]." The latter rule provides that "you" would be a whistleblower if "you" possessed a reasonable belief that the information you were providing related to a possible securities law violation (or, where applicable, to a possible violation of the provisions set forth in 18 U.S.C. 1514A(a)) "that has occurred, is ongoing, or is about to occur."

The SEC interpretation specifies that a person who provides information in good faith and believes the information to be useful is a whistleblower and should not lose the protection from employee retaliation that is afforded to whistleblowers who submit the information through incorrect procedures, although the use of an incorrect procedure might disqualify a whistleblower from receiving a monetary award.

See:SEC Interpretation of the SEC Whistleblower Rules under Section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act.See also:SEC Office of the Whistleblower. Related news:SEC Issues Multimillion Dollar Whistleblower Award (July 17, 2015); SEC Chair White Discusses the SEC's Whistleblower Program (with Lofchie Comment) (May 1, 2015); SEC Publishes 2014 Annual Report to Congress on Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program (November 18, 2014).