Welcome to Compliance Hot Spots, our weekly snapshot on white-collar, regulatory and compliance news and trends. Today we detail a big milestone for the SEC's whistleblower program and the shifting plans for DOJ's return to its offices. Thanks for reading, and please get in touch with tips and feedback. Contact me at [email protected] and @AGoudsward on Twitter.

|

A $1B Benchmark for the SEC's Whistleblower Program

When Sean McKessy left a private sector job in 2011 to return to the Securities and Exchange Commission to run its nascent whistleblower program, many of his friends at the agency feared he was making a huge mistake.

The program, which was authorized under the Dodd-Frank Act in reaction to the 2008 financial meltdown, had to be built from the ground up, and until whistleblowers actually started getting paid, many were skeptical it would work.