This $800 million whistleblower program is losing its top cop
Matt Egan, 16 April 2021
The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s highly-successful whistleblower program is stepping down at a delicate moment for the market watchdog.
Jane Norberg is leaving the SEC on Friday, after presiding over a four-and-half-year period during which the whistleblower office handed out a staggering $702 million in awards to 114 individuals who aided the agency’s investigations.
Her departure comes as former Obama-era official Gary Gensler takes over the SEC and as regulators come under fire from progressives — and even some famous investors — for failing to do enough to protect investors.
“The program is in a really fantastic place,” Norberg told CNN Business. “If the staff keeps doing what they’re doing, it’s going to continue to be incredibly successful.”
Norberg, a former Secret Service agent, admitted that she had some doubts about just how successful the whistleblower office would be when she joined the SEC in 2012.
“With anything new, you just don’t know at the beginning,” said Norberg, who previously served as the office’s deputy chief.
