Overview
The SEC whistleblower program, created by the Dodd-Frank Act, pays awards of 10 to 30 percent of monetary sanctions over $1 million to individuals who voluntarily provide original information that leads to a successful enforcement action. It also protects whistleblowers from retaliation. The program has driven some of the most significant securities enforcement actions of the last decade, and the awards have been substantial. But the process is demanding. A submission has to be specific, credible, and timely, and the whistleblower's own conduct and exposure have to be assessed honestly before a single document is sent.
Fridman Fels & Soto represents whistleblowers from the inside out. Alejandro Soto served as a Senior Trial Attorney in the SEC's Division of Enforcement and as a federal prosecutor. Mr. Bustillo was the head of the Miami Regional Office and evaluated Whistleblower matters handled by the office. They know how the Division evaluates a tip, what makes information actionable, and why most submissions never lead anywhere. That perspective lets the firm tell a prospective whistleblower the truth early: whether the information is strong enough to act on, what gaps the staff will see, and what the realistic path looks like.
The firm's cross-border depth matters here. Many of the most valuable tips involve conduct abroad, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations by U.S.-listed companies operating overseas. The firm has represented a whistleblower with first-hand evidence of foreign bribery by a U.S. public company's subsidiary, working in the relevant language and coordinating the U.S. submission. Foreign nationals are eligible for SEC whistleblower awards, and conduct outside the United States can support an enforcement action when it touches a U.S.-listed issuer.
Our Approach
We start with a candid assessment of the information and the person providing it. Is the information original and specific? Does it identify conduct the SEC has jurisdiction to pursue? Has any of it already been reported or made public, which can disqualify an award? Just as important, we assess the whistleblower's own role in the conduct and any retaliation or employment exposure, because those questions shape both the submission and the protections available.
A strong Form TCR submission is built like a mini-enforcement referral: it lays out the violation, ties it to documents and witnesses, and explains why the SEC should act. We prepare the submission to be credible to the staff who will read it, then manage the relationship with the Office of the Whistleblower and Enforcement through the investigation and, if an action results, the award claim.
Whistleblower work often runs alongside other exposure. A whistleblower may also be a witness, a former employee with a severance dispute, or a person with potential liability of their own. We coordinate the whistleblower submission with those parallel issues so a decision in one does not undercut the client's position in another.
