Snitching on your co-workers has never been so easy. Last year the US Securities and Exchange Commission received 6,911 tips from whistleblowers about potential wrongdoing at their firms — a record high. In other words, snitching in the financial world was up 30% last year.
What are all those copies for?
Doing nefarious deeds in the financial world has arguably never been easier. With remote working it's a lot less complicated to print out documents you're not supposed to have, talk to people you shouldn't talk to or leak information that shouldn't be leaked.
It's also easier to tell on those you suspect of wrongdoing. Without having to physically walk to the HR department, or even see the co-worker you suspect of foul play, the impediments to whistleblowing have come down substantially.
Snitches get... riches
As we read through the SEC's report to Congress the number that surprised us most wasn't 6,911, but $114 million — which is the amount of money the SEC paid out to a single (anonymous) whistleblower in October last year whose "information and assistance led to the successful enforcement of SEC and related action".
That brings the total amount paid out to whistleblowers to almost $700m since the program started back in 2012. Never mind joining that start-up, join a really dodgy investment fund and then dob them in (joking, kinda).
