The days of big whistleblower payouts appear to be on pause at the SEC, according to this Bloomberg Law article:

The commission, now with a Republican majority, denied awards in 31 consecutive orders issued between April 21 and July 15 – covering at least 55 different tipsters, Bloomberg Law found in a review of all 65 final orders issued this year. It’s the longest drought in the history of the program, which was created by the Dodd-Frank law of 2010 to encourage tips about financial wrongdoing.

Approximately $20 million has been awarded so far this year, including three awards totaling about $9 million that the agency made on July 16, two days after Bloomberg Law asked it about the lack of approvals.

The 31-0 trend is pretty striking on the SEC’s page for final orders on whistleblower claims – with the “denied” entries going on and on for several months.

The Bloomberg article says that the decline is partly due to the fact that the (much leaner) Staff is working through a backlog of questionable claims. Additionally, the Commission is applying whistleblower restrictions more strictly when it comes to people publishing their tips online or sharing them with media before coming to the SEC.

While companies obviously want to avoid any type of whistleblower or investigation if they can, it may be good news that there’s more incentive these days for disgruntled folks to go quietly to the regulator instead of also airing their grievances all over the interwebs. The downside for a company that is the subject of a whistleblower tip is that the SEC can quietly build a case and choose when to surprise you with the news.

– Liz Dunshee