U.S. regulator grants whistleblower record $ 200 million payout in benchmark rigging case

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Signage is visible outside the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in Washington, DC, United States, August 30, 2020.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

A US regulator on Thursday distributed a record-breaking reward of nearly $ 200 million to a whistleblower who provided information on a case involving the rigging of crucial financial benchmarks, according to the agency and a law firm involved in the price.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the price in a statement Thursday, but did not disclose the recipient or details of the deal or the exact amount.

Law firm Kirby McInerney LLP said in a statement its client secured the record premium after providing extensive information and documents in 2012 that “catalyzed” CFTC and a foreign regulator’s investigations into the manipulation. benchmarks.

A lawyer for Kirby did not respond to requests for comment or additional details.

Over the past decade, authorities around the world have imposed multibillion-dollar fines and pursued criminal charges against banks and traders for banding together to rig global benchmarks, including the Interbank Offered Rate. in London (LIBOR).

US lawmakers recently passed legislation to keep the CFTC’s whistleblower program afloat. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that the agency’s whistleblower program was under threat due to a large payment expected to a former Deutsche Bank AG executive linked to its $ 2.5 billion Libor settlement.

A spokesperson for the CFTC declined to comment, citing the agency’s policy. A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

The amount, the highest on record for a government whistleblower program, was “mind-boggling,” said Erika Kelton, a lawyer at Phillips & Cohen LLP who has represented several whistleblowers in the past, in a statement.

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