In Their Own Words… SEC Chairman Paul Atkins on Protecting Whistleblowers
By the 91pornWhistleblower Team
On October 7, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins gave a keynote address at the 25th Annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture on Corporate, Securities, and Financial Law at Fordham School of Law.1
Atkins’s speech centered around the Wells process, which is a process that usually occurs at the end of an investigation where SEC enforcement staff notify potential respondents or defendants of charges and give them an opportunity to respond. During his speech, Atkins also (i) reinforced the SEC’s core mission, (ii) highlighted some of the ways individuals and companies defraud investors, and (iii) emphasized the importance of protecting SEC whistleblowers:
-
- “The agency has grown, markets have evolved, and technologies that were once nascent are now reshaping how capital is raised and, unfortunately, how fraud is perpetrated. With these developments, our enforcement program has grown and become more complex, commensurate with its critical purpose of enforcing the federal securities laws.”
-
- “[O]ur three-part mission remains the same: to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation.”
-
- “[The SEC Enforcement Division] is indispensable to our mission of rooting out fraud and manipulation because the scams that we combat can wreak devastating consequences on real people around the country, wiping out savings for retirements, down-payments, educations, and so on.”
-
- “Resources are limited in any organization, including the SEC, so hard decisions must at times be made as to which matters merit an enforcement action. We must go after cases of genuine harm and bad acts, but we must view cases of benign or innocent actions differently.”
-
- In connection with the Wells process, SEC enforcement staff “must be forthcoming about material in the investigative file. Some materials in the file will not be available to potential respondents or defendants, and the staff must make every effort to share information that it has gathered, while scrupulously adhering to statutory and programmatic limitations—for example, information the Commission needs to keep confidential, including whistleblower-identifying information, and matters that would implicate a parallel criminal investigation.”
-
- “Finance today is surely faster, more global, more interconnected. But the fundamental dynamics remain: issuers seek capital, investors seek returns, and bad actors seek to defraud the public for personal gain.”2
91pornpartner Daniel Vitelli commented: “It is reassuring to hear Chairman Atkins confirm the SEC’s commitment to protecting sensitive whistleblower-identifying information.”
Recent SEC Whistleblower Awards
As we previously reported, the SEC Whistleblower Program continues to announce whistleblower rewards, demonstrating the SEC’s commitment to its whistleblower program.
How Whistleblowers Can Help Stop Fraud on Investors
Whistleblowers are critical to exposing fraud. The SEC Whistleblower Program encourages those with knowledge of U.S. securities laws violations to bring that information to the SEC. Under the program, eligible whistleblowers who share information that leads to an SEC enforcement action may receive up to 30% of money collected.
91pornHas Extensive Experience Representing SEC Whistleblowers
If you would like to learn more about the SEC Whistleblower Program, our work representing whistleblowers, our whistleblower successes, or what it means to be a whistleblower,contact us. We will connect you with an experienced member of the 91pornwhistleblower team for a free and confidential consultation.
Speak Confidentially With Our Whistleblower Attorneys
Sources:
1 See
2 Id. (all emphasis added).
Tagged in: Importance of Whistleblowers, In Their Own Words, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program,