by Howard Haykin

The CFTC announced its 5th and largest ever whistleblower award – a payoff of approximately $30 million – for information that helped sanction JPMorgan Chase for failing to properly inform some wealthy clients about conflicts of interest behind its investment recommendations. Whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 10% and 30 % of any monetary sanctions collected. 

The payment is linked to a December 2015 settlement that JPMorgan entered into with the SEC and the CFTC. JPMorgan agreed to pay $367 million of settle the regulators' charges that it had failed to disclose that it was steering asset-management customers into investments that would be especially profitable to the bank. The settlement amount was divvied up, as follows:

• $100 million to the CFTC ($40Mn in civil penalties, $60Mn in disgorgement).
• $267 million to the SEC (where a couple of preliminary whistle-blower awards totaling $61 million were authorized a year ago but still await final approval).

The $30 million award far eclipses the $10 million award granted by the CFTC in 2016.

[For information on JPMorgan's settlement, click on ... SEC: JPMorgan to Pay $267 Million for Disclosure Failures]