17 CFR 165.5 – Requirements for consideration of an award
(a) Subject to the eligibility requirements described in this part, the Commission will pay an award to one or more whistleblowers who:
Terms Used In 17 CFR 165.5
- covered judicial or administrative action: means any judicial or administrative action brought by the Commission under the Commodity Exchange Act whose successful resolution results in monetary sanctions exceeding $1,000,000. See 17 CFR 165.2
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- original information: means information that—
(1) Is derived from the independent knowledge or independent analysis of a whistleblower;
(2) Is not already known to the Commission from any other source, unless the whistleblower is the original source of the information;
(3) Is not exclusively derived from an allegation made in a judicial or administrative hearing, in a governmental report, hearing, audit, or investigation, or from the news media, unless the whistleblower is a source of the information; and
(4) Is submitted to the Commission for the first time after July 21, 2010 (the date of enactment of the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010). See 17 CFR 165.2
- related action: when used with respect to any judicial or administrative action brought by the Commission under the Commodity Exchange Act, means any judicial or administrative action brought by an entity listed in § 165. See 17 CFR 165.2
- successful resolution: when used with respect to any judicial or administrative action brought by the Commission under the Commodity Exchange Act, includes any settlement of such action or final judgment in favor of the Commission. See 17 CFR 165.2
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
- whistleblowers: means any individual, or two (2) or more individuals acting jointly, who provides information relating to a potential violation of the Commodity Exchange Act to the Commission, in the manner established by § 165. See 17 CFR 165.2
(1) Provide a voluntary submission to the Commission;
(2) That contains original information; and
(3) That leads to the successful resolution of a covered judicial or administrative action or successful enforcement of a Related Action or both; and
(b) In order to be eligible, the whistleblower must:
(1) Have voluntarily provided the Commission original information in the form and manner that the Commission requires in § 165.3;
(2) Have submitted a claim in response to a Notice of Covered Action or a final judgment in a Related Action or both;
(3) Provide the Commission, upon its staff’s request, certain additional information, including:
(i) Explanations and other assistance, in the manner and form that staff may request, in order that the staff may evaluate the use of the information submitted related to the whistleblower’s application for an award;
(ii) All additional information in the whistleblower’s possession that is related to the subject matter of the whistleblower’s submission related to the whistleblower’s application for an award; and
(iii) Testimony or other evidence acceptable to the staff relating to the whistleblower’s eligibility for an award; and
(4) If requested by the Whistleblower Office, enter into a confidentiality agreement in a form acceptable to the Whistleblower Office, including a provision that a violation of the confidentiality agreement may lead to the whistleblower’s ineligibility to receive an award.
(c) The Commission may, in its sole discretion, waive any procedural requirements based upon a showing of extraordinary circumstances.