September 5, 2019
Dear Rule Comments, I am writing about the recently proposed changes to the SEC's whistleblower program. Whistleblowers have helped the SEC recover over $1.7 billion in sanctions from wrongdoers over the past decade, including more than $901 million in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and interest. I believe that two of the amendments proposed to the Whistleblower program would be extremely discouraging to whistleblowers and undermine the success your program has had. Proposed revisions to Exchange Act Rule 21F-9(e) would create an unrealistic reporting procedure that would disqualify a vast number of whistleblowers simply because they either elected to attempt to resolve matters within their companies or discussed the matter with anyone else, rather than going directly through the SEC’s specific reporting procedures. That makes the standard that employees must assume bad faith on their employer's part, and have fully researched SEC's policies before taking any action, and they cannot use the SEC as an escalation. It would also waste the SEC's time if they must be the absolute first resort for suspected malfeasance. Proposed revisions to Exchange Act Rule 21F-6 would also disincentivize whistleblowers from coming forward by placing an arbitrary limit on whistleblower rewards, especially in cases where the whistleblower uncovered massive or long-term frauds. Rewards must be based on the level of the whistleblower’s contribution to the successful outcome of the case. They are essential in encouraging whistleblowers to step forward with high-quality information on the largest cases. Many whistleblowers get blackballed or cannot find work in their profession because of the personal relationships executives have or may face legal reprisals in civil court. To expect them to shoulder that as the price of honesty creates too much temptation to leave things be. Issues of accountability are extremely important to me. I encourage you to withdraw these proposed changes and ensure the robust whistleblower program continues. Thank you for your consideration of my thoughts on this matter. Sincerely, Sincerely, Julia Buck [redacted]