OSC awards trio of whistleblowers

Corporate outsiders that provided the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) with analysis that helped ferret out misconduct have received financial payouts under its whistleblower program.

The OSC announced that it awarded a combined $585,000 to three whistleblowers for providing the regulator with information that pointed to securities law violations and sparked a successful enforcement action.

The unnamed tipsters provided the agency’s enforcement staff “with specialized technical analysis on a complex area of securities law” that prompted the OSC to open an investigation, and that “broadened an existing investigation,” the OSC said in a release.

“The whistleblowers’ detailed information brought to light violations of Ontario securities law that would have otherwise been difficult to detect, and it allowed staff to proceed more expeditiously,” it said.

The whistleblowers also provided extensive, ongoing assistance to the OSC, which helped advance the investigations.

“The information provided by all three whistleblowers was highly specific and enabled enforcement staff to zero in on underlying violations of Ontario securities law,” said Jeff Kehoe, director of enforcement at the OSC.

“We will continue to recognize individuals who provide us with specialized technical analysis that leads to successful enforcement actions,” he said.

With these latest awards, the OSC has now paid a total of $8.6 million under its whistleblower program, which launched in 2016. The commission made its first awards in early 2019.

The commission recently made a plea for whistleblower tips on trading misconduct, such as illegal insider trading, market manipulation and abusive short selling.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.