A Tuesday night deep-dive with the Jellyfish on the SEC Whistleblower 2020 Annual Report and what it could mean for YOU!
Evening r/Superstonk, Jellyfish back with one more post for the day. This time, I can’t shake Dr. Burry going away on Twitter again and one of his quotes from The Big Short.
"One of the hallmarks of mania is the rapid rise in complexity and the rates of fraud" -Michael Burry
To that end, I found the FY20 Whistleblower Annual Report and I think there is some stuff in here you'll find interesting with regards to the rates of fraud.
First, I need to get some housekeeping items out of the way/level set understanding of what we are looking at:
- The U.S. federal government runs on an Oct 1 to Sep 30 fiscal year.
- When I put together the data outside the FY20 Annual report, it is based on a calendar year (1/1-12/31)
- The total number of whistleblowers referenced in the 2020 report DOES NOT line up with the number of whistleblowers I counted going through each press release the SEC posted and used in the graphs further down in this post.
How can this be?
- I screwed up and can’t count properly
- They screwed up the numbers in the report vs what is posted in press releases
- It could be the same whistleblower for multiple awards made to them?
- The dollar amounts are close, I attribute the difference to them only using 'round numbers' in the press release vs. the awards actually being precise amounts.
Ok, with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive in!
That's a lot of yellow!
Comments:
FY20 called out as the highest dollar amount and the highest number of individuals awarded in a given fiscal year, so far. FY21 has said hold my beer!
FY20 represents 31% of the total dollars awarded to all whistleblowers. Let that sink in! Nearly 1/3 of all the money awarded in the programs 8 years of existence was FY20.
FY20 represents 37% of people who have been awarded since the program began—that’s a TON more whistling happening!
FY20 is a 140% increase from FY 19 AND they processed the largest number of preliminary determinations ever (167% increase from the year previous) and anticipate EVEN MORE as 'newly' adopted rules allow them to process these claims faster.
FY20 saw the most tips ever—6,900. Nice. This is 31% higher than the then previous record year of FY18, and a 130% increase since the start of the program. HOLY SHIT people have a lot to say….
Nice
The 3rd quarter FY20 (April-June) was a particularly high number of tips. I wonder what was happening in that time frame?
Please don’t spam it but they do seem to have to be responsive—I will come back to this later in the post.
Below are the top ten highest awards made under the SEC’s whistleblower program both by Covered Action (i.e., considering all awards made within a single Covered Action) and by award amount from the inception of the program through FY 2020.
Get yo hush money!
In 72% of awards this year, the Commission positively assessed the level of the whistleblower’s assistance to the Commission staff—a.k.a the whistleblowers did their jobs for them….
Apes have repeatedly and tenaciously been on this GME issue too you know…
Comment:
Soooo, if anyone was on the fence if internal risk management is neutered or asleep at the wheel, here ya go…
Ok, I know there are a few of you who are wondering what the requirements to blow the whistle are:
You see that Shitadel interns, almost a third of the awards were for just piling on!
Moving into this next section, this is where I would like r/Superstonk to take a breathe and think who might meet eligibility:
So anyone else thinking what I am thinking? That a shitadel intern is going to steal the sub's DD to get in on that dog pile? Well, yes, and that and the authors of said DD may want to consider blowing the whistle first!
Sure Jellyfish, they’d really take it seriously, right?
That sounds like the DD I've been reading!
I mean, isn’t u/atobitt's HoC peer-reviewed by industry experts now? Isn't u/Criand dropping bombs and connecting dots? What about the Elliot Wave guy? The Dark Pool Guy? The sorcery the quants like u/braaaaiiinnnsss and co. are putting together?
Finally, last thought, the explosion in awards proves the system is broken.
Fining them a percentage of the ill-gotten gains without the threat of jail time is just a cost of doing business. This has to change!!!
Graphs and shit for the Apes who don’t want to (or can’t) read:
From the 2020 report:
If it even thinks about getting low, the hush money fund is replenished!
All Time Calendar Year Data Compiled by me:
Look at it start to explode from 2018!
Remember, this year still has 3 months left to 'catch up' with 2020...
TL:DR - I believe members of r/Superstonk would be eligible under the whistleblower guidelines and may want to consider whistleblowing as some of the DD around here meets the requirements they layout, and per statute, the SEC would have to respond. Also, this appears to tie to Dr. Burry's quote pretty well, as the amounts awarded are going through the roof!
