Anonymous SEC Whistleblower Reports: You Know What the Public Numbers Leave Out

The Securities and Exchange Commission accepts anonymous SEC whistleblower reports, and we help you address your identity and your evidence together. You may know why the financial statements tell a different story from the customer agreement, or why a fund charged fees its investors never agreed to pay. If privacy is what stands between that knowledge and speaking up, start with our whistleblower experts. We bring in SEC whistleblower counsel and work through those questions with you.

This page is for someone considering an anonymous report who wants to know whether their information deserves a serious conversation. Our starting point is the connection you can explain between what investors were told, what the business actually did, and the records behind it.

Can You Anonymously Report Someone to the SEC?

Yes, the Securities and Exchange Commission recognizes anonymous whistleblower reports. We address the reporting arrangement with you and SEC whistleblower counsel, with your circumstances at the center of that conversation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower FAQ identifies the kinds of conduct the agency investigates, including Ponzi schemes, misleading financial statements, misuse of investor money, insider trading and manipulation of securities prices. Your knowledge may concern a transaction, a customer arrangement or an instruction inside the business.

Will the SEC Keep My Identity Confidential?

We address confidentiality with you and SEC whistleblower counsel as part of assessing your report. Anonymity and confidentiality are separate questions, and we take each one up with you.

If you have already raised concerns internally, work in compliance or audit, or have questions about an agreement you signed, those are matters we take up with you and the whistleblower lawyers we bring in. Your role and how you came to know the information belong alongside the evidence from the beginning.

What Makes Information in an Anonymous SEC Report Useful?

Useful information gives investigators something specific to examine. The Securities and Exchange Commission says reports identifying participants, particular transactions and nonpublic materials are more likely to reach investigative staff for follow-up. We focus on what you know, how you know it, and the records that let someone else test the account.

In a public company, a reported number passes through transaction records, accounting entries, estimates, the financial close and disclosure review. Someone preparing the accounts may see an instruction that never appears in the published financial statements. Someone handling a customer relationship may know the terms behind a sale that accounting sees only as an invoice.

The Customer Agreement Behind the Revenue

For someone in sales or finance, the important evidence may be the terms the customer actually accepted. A return right, a condition on payment or a change to delivery can matter to the story told by the company’s revenue.

In its complaint concerning MiMedx, the SEC alleged that executives arranged return rights or made payment contingent on sales to end users, then concealed those terms. The agency also described misleading auditors and the audit committee after a former controller raised concerns. The alleged arrangement made the invoice an incomplete account of the sale. If you know the side agreement, you may be able to explain the part the invoice leaves out.

The Fee Calculation Behind the Charge

For someone in investment management, the comparison may be between an agreement and the way the billing system calculates a charge. The promised fee, the calculation and the actual debit connect the investor’s understanding to the money taken from the account.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Wells Fargo advisory-fee action concerned allegations that advisers failed to enter agreed discounts into billing systems. Its Insight Venture Management action concerned allegations that fees were calculated at the portfolio-company level instead of the individual-security level specified in partnership agreements. These are concrete differences an insider can explain.

The Company Agreement Can Be Part of the Concern

Company agreements have themselves been the subject of SEC enforcement over restrictions on reporting. The wording can matter to someone deciding whether to speak up, alongside the underlying securities concern.

In its KBR enforcement announcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that interview confidentiality language required permission from the company’s law department to discuss the investigation with outsiders. KBR agreed to a $130,000 civil penalty and amended the language. We see an odd choice of gatekeeper in that allegation: the company under scrutiny.

In its J.P. Morgan Securities order, the agency alleged that agreements limited what brokerage customers and advisory clients could tell regulators. The settled order imposed an $18 million civil penalty. If an employment or customer agreement is part of your concern, we examine it with SEC whistleblower counsel in the context of what you know and want to report.

Knowledge Can Come From Outside the Company

An SEC whistleblower does not have to be an employee of the company being reported. The agency also recognizes independent analysis that draws important insights from public information, including insights that are not apparent from the documents on their face.

That can make industry knowledge useful alongside internal records. A person who understands a product, a transaction or a fee calculation may explain a discrepancy that a public filing alone leaves unclear.

Whistleblower information can also help an investigation already underway. The Securities and Exchange Commission describes using new information to pursue a different line of inquiry or to make a significant contribution to an existing investigation. Your knowledge of the transaction can matter even when the company is already under scrutiny.

SEC Whistleblower Awards Recognize the Information’s Contribution

Eligible SEC whistleblowers can receive awards of 10% to 30% of qualifying monetary sanctions collected, where the successful SEC action results in sanctions exceeding $1 million. The agency considers the significance of the information and the assistance provided. We assess the evidence and award opportunity with you and SEC whistleblower counsel.

A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers. The SEC has a separate whistleblower program, and we examine which program fits the conduct you know about.

Do Whistleblower Laws Deter Accounting Fraud?

A 2019 working paper hosted by MIT Sloan, Do Corporate Whistleblower Laws Deter Accounting Fraud?, found reduced estimated accounting-fraud risk among companies exposed to state whistleblower laws through state pension-fund ownership. Its separate analysis of the SEC whistleblower provision found a larger reduction among firms that had not already faced those state provisions. For the person who sees the transaction from the inside, that is a reason their knowledge matters beyond the published number.

Your Anonymous SEC Report Starts With a Conversation

If you know the agreement, accounting decision or fee calculation that investors never saw, speak with our whistleblower experts about an anonymous SEC report. We work beside you to build the evidence into your strongest securities whistleblower matter and bring in SEC whistleblower lawyers who understand the conduct you are describing. We stay with you through the process, including the privacy questions that brought you here.